PASSION

Passion is one of the most misused words in the English language. Too often, it is confused with lust, excitement, or turmoil, an easy word to use when emotions run high. We are often unsure about what kind of word it is: people feel passionately about something, or people have a passion for something. The one thing we know for sure about passion is that it is a desirable thing: we know that we should somehow have a passion, or feel passionately, about something in life. The problem is, that passion never seems to last very long. The most beautiful scenery, the most wonderful works of art, the most intense and loving of relationships, can become almost banal if focused on for too long. We simply get used to them, and the day-to-day exposure to them takes away the effect they once had on us. If we are honest, we must admit that even our love for the Lord has its mountains and valleys, we are not always as passionate about him as we can be. Now this is very natural: it may be that a fallen Mankind is incapable of maintaining a level of passionate interest in anything for a sustained length of time. This is true, not only individually, but collectively too. The Church has needed revivals throughout its history, in order to restore to it the joy of its salvation. Revival, that other much-abused word, is the renewal of passion for something. One can have a religious revival, or a cultural revival; a revival of a language, or of an art form. We are almost like clocks - we slowly wind down, and the dreariness and distractions of everyday life take their toll on our passions. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that everything in the universe is winding down, so I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that we partake of that Law also. There was a time when I would feel very guilty about losing my passion for Jesus. I would convict myself about not having the same love for reading Scripture that I once had. The idea of prayer held no appeal for me whatsoever. I was confused: all these things had once been the focus of my life, they were my passion. I thought I was backsliding: that somehow I should feel as passionately about them as I had at the beginning. I would think of the verse from Revelation and conclude that I had lost my first love. It took some time for me to gain a sense of balance about this (balance, not compromise). I looked in the Scriptures and saw example after example of this same process in the lives of the men and women of God. Abraham went out from his home in passionate faith, not knowing where he was going. But he also came to a point where he questioned God, unsure about everything. The only thing that kept him going was faith: believing that God knew what he was doing, and that what he was doing was founded in his love for Abraham. The story of Job is that of a man who knew despair and trials almost beyond his ability to endure. He stormed at God and demanded vindication. David is my favourite of all: no-one can read his Psalms and not see the highs and lows of his walk with God. He knew victory over Goliath and defeat over Bathsheba. He had the high of being anointed by Samuel as King, and the lows of being chased by Saul through desert and exile. He knew the glory of reigning in Jerusalem, and running for his life from his own son. In his songs we see a man who often had to talk himself into remembering the love of God and the righteousness of the King of Kings. I find a secret there: he had to remind himself. There was no great passion in his heart for the things of God at that point, it had to be stirred up again, it had to be revived. People want things to stay constant and sure; but it is not a constant and sure world, and we are so easily swayed by emotions and events. At times of great passion, the high times, we are like the apostles on Mount Tabor, the mount of transfiguration: "It is good to be here, let's build a house and stay here forever!". But Jesus made it clear that we have to leave that place and go back down the hill to where the world is waiting to frustrate and challenge us: "Faithless people! How long do I have to put up with you?" Unfortunately, we can then move to the opposite extreme, and lose all passion and joy. Then we are like the apostles on another mountain, the Mount of Olives. There they stand, looking up at the sky, shocked and dismayed by the sudden disappearance of Jesus into the clouds. Feeling alone and abandoned, they needed to be jolted back to reality by angels! "Why do you stand looking up into the sky? He will come back, just as you've seen him go away". Time, once again, for them to leave the mountain and return to the world to be frustrated and challenged once more. So we must beware of both highs and lows. The times of great joy and revival are not going to last forever. We will be refreshed and renewed, but then its time to go back to the world, where we are needed as witnesses of what we have seen and heard. To try and build a house and live in those times is to deny reality and to speak foolishly, as Peter did. But if we think that this great emotional joy is forever, then we will be devastated by what we will ultimately have to face. When Christians find themselves in concentration camps, or persecuted, or in danger of losing all because of their faith, they overcome and find joy in their circumstances because they know that this too is part of God's inheritance. Their passion for God is not confined to times of emotional highs: it is deeper than that. Just as a passionate musician will face both the highs of performance, and the hardships and discipline of rehearsal and long hours of practice, so the Christian needs to understand that passion for Christ involves both dancing with joy and simply standing in the day of trial. Remember that we have an Enemy, whose mission is to steal, kill and destroy. One of his most effective weapons against us is his use of false expectations. We expect the highs to last forever: they don't and we fall victim to disillusionment. We think we have done something wrong, that we are being punished for some sin. Believing that we should be emotionally high as Christians, we strive to recreate the joy and the freedom we once knew. Them we either drift into an unreal life, or we acknowledge the truth and lose hope. We can live in a nostalgic misery, longing for the great days of old when we were happy and full of faith. Or we can decide that those days were an illusion, a lie, that there is no such thing as joy and happiness in Christ, only hardship and servitude. We are amazing creatures: convinced that where we happen to be at this moment is all that is real, that nothing will ever change in our lives. If we are joyful and on Mount Tabor, that is where we will always stay. If we are miserable and on the Mount of Olives, then that is all we can hope for from life. Satan steals our hope, kills our joy and destroys our passion for life. What can we do? First of all, let us learn from our brothers and sisters. Peter had to remind the Christians in his day that trials and griefs were not a sign of failure and punishment: "Don't be surprised at the hardships you are enduring, as though something unusual was happening to you". God is as much in those times as he was in the days of dancing and joy. Secondly, remember the secret David learned: this, too, will pass. Learn from the men and women of the Bible, and apply it to your own life also. When he faced Goliath, David took courage from previous experience. He had, as a shepherd, faced both a lion and a bear who were attacking the sheep. God enabled him to overcome the lion and the bear, therefore God would enable him to overcome Goliath also. Over and over in the Psalms, we find David reassuring himself in times of trial and grief: "I remember....". He reminded himself of God's faithfulness in earlier times, not in a nostalgic way, but as a lesson to be applied to today's circumstances. His passion for God enabled him to go through the hard times, as well as to dance and sing in the good times. Our passion for God must be like that: the engine which drives us through all circumstances. But passion is something that can fade with time, as we have already shown. How do we deal with that? It is hard to live in this world that Satan governs so pitilessly. He takes away people's passion and replaces it with hatred, despair and complacency (whichever works best at the time). When you speak with passion about Jesus, when you set your heart to live for him and to be faithful and obedient to him, the world, echoing its master, will tell you that you are being foolish. They will tell you that there is no point in being a fanatic; that what was true in the Bible is no longer practical in our day and age. The world will pour over your hopes and dreams a thick layer of cynicism, trying to drown all idealism and faith. "This is as good as it gets". Jesus came to give his people abundant life: Satan wants us to believe the world is grey and drab. Like David, we need to have a passion that encompasses both highs and lows, the desert and the throne, the joy and the hardships. This requires some effort on our part. There are things that give me great pleasure, and sometimes I need to deliberately go back to them as an antidote to bleakness and despair. I'm not just speaking of spiritual things (at least not strictly spiritual), but of anything that brings joy and an appreciation of God's lovingkindness. I can shout aloud for pure joy when I hear Eric Clapton play guitar, or when I look out on the mountains of Connemara, or when I read Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, or P.G. Wodehouse. I find myself praising God that there are such gifts in this world, bringing joy and reminding us of what is wonder-ful in life. There are times when we need to reject the darkness which crowds around us in this world, when we need to remind ourselves of the joy and the truth of God's love and faithfulness. It sometimes takes a real effort to shake off the cynicism and the gloom which the Enemy would use to drown our passion. We must fill our minds and hearts with the Word of God, the promises of our Father, and use this as a sword to cut through the darkness and the lies. Satan would have us partake of the blind despair and self-centredness of the world. But Jesus prayed for us, not that we be taken out of that world, but that we be kept safe from the Evil One. It takes real passion to stand against the dark, to contradict the thoughts of the world, and to stand for what is real and true and honourable and worthy of praise. The battle takes place in your mind, so fill it with the things which feed your passion for Jesus. And, remembering, always remembering, that our God is unchanging, faithful and all-powerful, and that he will bring to completion the work he began in us. As Paul told the Romans, don't conform to the world and its ways, but be transfigured by the renewing of your mind, so you will know what is good and what the perfect will of God is. It is so easy to be drugged by the world and its miserable ways. But wake up, sleeper! Rise from the dead, and God will shine on you.