Sunday, April 3

Jesus said, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” John 12:46-48

Theme for the Week: The Truth about Passion

What are you passionate about in life? Shopping or sports, cooking or cleaning, eating to exist or existing to eat, working or working out, talking or traveling, children or charity? There is so much in life to do and so many ways to live our lives. There are so many choices to make and so many paths to take that some days we may seem overwhelmed. And on top of that there are so many people with whom we interface and interact. What are we to do, how are we to live with all these decisions and all these people to contemplate?

Our passions help direct our lives and our choices. My wife, Stephanie, and I have a passion for Provence in southern France. Therefore we make the effort to get there every few years. (In fact I was writing this during my sabbatical while drinking my morning coffee by the pool at a little farm house we rented in the Luberon mountains in Provence.) We also have a passion for sushi. Therefore, when we go out to eat, we make sure we go for sushi once a month or more. We have a passion for education. Therefore we have our children enrolled in what we believe are wonderful schools for them. We also have a passion for Jesus because of what he has done for us, is doing for us, and will do for us. Therefore we are devoted to him and want him to direct our lives so that we may bring glory to him.

You see, our passions direct us in making key decisions in our lives. They help dictate how we use our time and our resources. They help us focus our attention on certain people and certain situations. You might ask, “Are certain passions more Christian than others?  Passions that are right and passions that are wrong? What forms and guides Christian passions? How can Jesus direct our passions and our lives? What exactly does the Bible say?”

·           Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.” This is the most important, the first on any list. Matthew 22:37, The Message

·           You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:3, ESV

·           As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. 1 Peter 1:14, ESV

·           So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22, ESV

·           Meanwhile, the saints stand passionately patient, keeping God’s commands, staying faithful to Jesus. Revelation 14:12, The Message

The Bible says that some passions that stem from our former ignorance are wrong and that the saints, those who are faithful to Jesus, have a different kind of passion that desires to follow God’s commands and love him whole heartedly. Yet this begs the question, “How do we move from ignorance to knowledge of the truth about passions, about what is of God and what is not?”

I used to be totally ignorant about Provence, but after several trips to the region, I now have some knowledge, especially about an area called the Luberon. The first time Stephanie and I went for a week-long stay was while we were living in Oxford, England, for my theological training. She had read a book by Peter Mayle called A Year in Provence and developed a passion to go there. I told her we could not afford to go because of the great expense of us being at Oxford University for seminary.

Yet when passions burn, you find a way to do things. Stephanie found a house outside of Menerbes, where Peter Mayle had written his book, for about two hundred dollars a week—a price I could not argue against. And so we went and fell in love with the landscape, the food, the people, and the sheer beauty of this corner of God’s creation.

Why were our passions moved? Looking back—and having considered this question while I was writing in the summer of 2009 at my pool-side table—I believe it has something to do with the landscape more than anything else for me. The hills and rocks and trees and sunlight of the Luberon remind me of my favorite place from my childhood: my grandparents’ lake house in the Texas Hill Country. There is a fondness in my memories that brings joy to my being—an image buried inside that reminds me of my origins and of how my life was shaped. Provence, and more specifically the Luberon, is a larger picture for me. It is though I have moved from the first 13-inch color TV my family bought when I was nine, to IMAX, where everything that was good as a child—all the memories and images—are blown up and live large before my eyes in colors, sounds, tastes, and touches that speak of truth, beauty, and God’s glory to me. It is as though a new and larger life has been breathed into me. It was not there before but now is. Now I have a new passion. Being born again, in a sense, is like the recovery of a faded image, the image of God, blown up and living large in us.