Developing a Passion

So this just came to me the other day and i thought i would share it. idk how clear it will be, kinda just wanting to get it all out.. and hopefully God will direct my fingers as they type:D so here it goes....

My first car was a 1993 Honda Civic EX. it was given to me from a family friend who had moved to Japan and didn't need it anymore. i drove that thing everywhere, it was reliable. However, i wanted/needed something new that would be a tad more reliable. well i started to look and look. and finally God directed me to this awesome little Honda civic hatchback. PERFECT!! i love that car so much!

when i first got the car i had to get adjusted to it because it was a manual (real drivers) not an automatic (*facepalm* drivers). i had been driving it around for about a month when i wanted to learn a little bit about what was under the hood. i started diving into Honda forums and online blogs. i also asked people who i knew had an understanding of cars. Every time i learned something new i wanted to know more! well this passion kept building and building. well God gave me a perfect opportunity after that, because it was time to get a new clutch. removing the clutch from a car is not an "easy" task. it requires taking out the transmission which is work. i am glad i had my buddy garret to lead me into this overwhelming task! we got it out, fixed and back in within 2 days! i have this passion to keep learning more, and to keep working on my car.

Passion.. it is a weird, almost indescribable thing. but yet we all have it right? we all have a passion for something, whether it is for video games, working on cars, playing music, or just hanging with friends we all have passions.

but where does passion come from, or how does a person become passionate.

1) it requires time spent.

we can't have a passion for something if we never spend time with it. For me, when i became passionate about my car i started to go out and just look under the hood, even though i had no idea what half the stuff was, just being there with the car seemed to help quench this passion.

2) a yearning to learn more

if i just looked at my car, but never wanted to learn what was under the hood, or how it all worked then i would not have a passion for the car, it would just be another car.

3) talk about it

after you start to want to learn more you seek out others to talk about it with. you through out your little knowledge you have and they poor into you the knowledge they have.

Finally

4) make a change

talking about it wont be enough, you have to just get your hands dirty and start going for it. otherwise all your doing is talking about how much you love this thing or person or idea, but never doing anything about it, that's not a real passion.

thinking about these 4 essentials for being passionate, none of them can happen if you don't spend time with it. how could you ever want to learn more if you never spent time with the car, or the person? how would you talk about it if you had no idea what it was like. and you certainly could go about making a change without first having spent sometime getting familiar with it.

NOW!!....

Our passion for our walk with Jesus is the exact same thing! this is so awesome!

1) spend time with Jesus.

Psalm140:13 "the Godly will live in your presence."

in order to be like Jesus we have to be in his presence, how do we do that? by spending time with him through prayer and the Bible.

2) Desire to know more about Jesus

Matthew 17:19 the disciples here were trying to cast a demon out of a little boy. the demon didn't come out, so Jesus did it. well here is where most Christians give up, because if we don't understand something the first time we tend to think we never will. the disciples show us how to want to know more. they go to Jesus and ask what they did wrong. they make themselves vulnerable to growth! they wanted to know more! they only knew they could go and ask Jesus that though because they spent time with him.

3) Talk about Jesus

Luke 2:41-49 this is the story of Jesus staying in the temple and his parents leaving him. well when they come back they are freaking out and they find Jesus in the temple with the leaders talking and asking questions and he even answers their questions. Jesus was passionate about God, and he was God! i mean its an awesome example, Jesus sat around and because of his strong passion he spent time with God, he wanted to learn more, and he talked about it with others who were "wiser" but he was even answering them.. why? he was passionate!

4) Make a change

Matthew 28:19 i think for Christians this can be the hardest part about being passionate. it is so clear because you can come back from a camp and be all fired up and passionate, why? because you spent time with Jesus, you learned more, you talked about him. but then coming back we never make it to the final step of making a change. our final step to being a passionate christian is following the great commission. because when you become passionate about something you don't just want to leave i the way it is. just like my car, i am passionate and when i got the opportunity to make a change and get my hands dirty i jumped on it. SAME THING for Christians, we have to jump on every opportunity God gives us to get our hands dirty and try! and if we mess up like the disciples it doesn't mean we aren't passionate, we just become more passionate because we can learn more and then talk about it more, and spend more time with Jesus, then trying to make that change will come easier. but the only way to make a change is trying, nothing gets done by wishing or thinking.

I hope this makes sense and is a challenge/encouragement to you. i want you to understand that this whole process of being passionate starts out with spending time with God. with out that there can't be a passion! and without spending time with God, and reading the Bible are we really being Christians? Hopefully God spoke to you through this. i just love sharing what God puts on my heart!