[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Want to know how God turns your pain into your passion?
Pick up any dictionary from the 1800s, and you will quickly find that the way we use words today is quite different. So is the case with the word “passion.” The Latin root is passivus, capable of feeling or suffering, or patior, willing to suffer. This is why Jesus’ crucifixion is often called The Passion of Christ. He was willing to suffer because of His love for God and for us.
When something is terribly important to us, we are willing to suffer for it, get uncomfortable, put in the work, and stay up late.
David Brooks wrote in The Art of Focus, “If you want to win the war for attention, don’t try to say ‘no’ to the trivial distractions you find on the information smorgasbord; try to say, ‘yes’ to the subject that arouses a terrifying longing, and let that terrifying longing crowd out everything else.”
Jesus was not distracted from His passion, his longing to bring us close with God.
“… let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1b-3
First, pain breaks our hearts. And because we don’t like pain, we turn away.
But when we follow Jesus, focusing beyond our pain to bring others closer to God, we find something that gives life.
We find our passion.
Pray: God, please show me my passion. Help me be willing to have my heart broken, and then healed by You for my own—and others’—good.
Sow: Name your passion this week if you are able. Do you know other women with a similar passion? Get together and discuss what it might look like to let that terrifying longing crowd out everything else.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]