Passion Is The Difference

Voyle A. Glover

Passion is the difference. Nothing else can explain it.

How can you explain the difference between two football players of equal strength and skills, where one excels and goes on to stardom, and the other fades into obscurity? The famous coach of the Greenbay Packers, Vince Lombardi, understood the concept well.

He said: “Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up -- from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's OK You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second." Lombardi noted that he'd rather have a player with "50% ability and 100% desire" because the player with 100% ability and 50% desire "can screw up your whole system because one day he will be out there waltzing around."

The great race car driver, Mario Andretti understood about having a passion. He said: "Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal -- a commitment to excellence -- that will enable you to attain the success you seek. " He realized that one must have passion.

How do you explain a Michael Jordan? Some would like to tell us that a Jordan or a Tiger Woods came about as the result of superior genetic makeup, i.e., they were somehow granted a gift of DNA elevating their physical prowess far above their fellow players. I don’t believe that.

I contend it’s passion that made them different.

Theirs was a passion that drove them to train and push themselves to become the best. Theirs was a passion that drove them into a commitment that compelled them to train and work, and remain focused on a dream–the dream of being “the best.”

And that is exactly what they managed to do. They rose to the top. They became the best of the best.

That’s what made the difference in Paul, the Apostle. He was consumed with a passion, the passion of his Lord. He was focused on being a servant of the Most High God. He was completely sold out, completely surrendered to Christ. Again and again, Paul referred to himself as a “servant” to Christ. His absolute commitment is probably best seen in this statement he makes: "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more." (1Co 9:19). He speaks of this committment in terms of running a race and concludes that in running this "race," he has determined to be disciplined with his flesh. " But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." (1Co 9:27).

But what makes a man or a woman so focused? How does one obtain a passion like Paul had? How does one become “sold out?” How does one have this kind of a desire? Is there a magic button one must push within his or her psyche? Is there a mantra one must pray or say daily? Is there a Bible study that finally does it, or a prayer that suddenly and finally works? Is there a point at which one finally has all the doctrines down pat and comes a Ureka! moment, when the passion fire is lit? What is it?

I suggest to you that acquiring doctrine, while important, is not the way to become passionate about Christ. It is not reading more of the Bible, nor is it more hours in prayer, important though such things may be. Nor is it listening to other men, preachers, pontificate with moving eloquence on the various virtues of Christ or the graciousness of our God. Becoming passionately committed to Christ, focused into doing His will and only His will, absorbed into His love, and consumed by His work cannot come from any of these “self efforts” to achieve.

Unlike the intense training of a Jordan and others like him, a Christian does not become passionate merely from the doing of a thing, though the doing of good works clearly leads one to passion, leads one to fixation, leads one to absorption, and lends itself to the process of becoming passionate. But alone, it is not sufficient.

Ultimately, I believe there are three things necessary to have such a passion as Paul had.

First, one must have desire. Not for naught saith the Scriptures, “Ye have not because ye ask not.” James 4:2. The desire to have passion is an absolute essential. But desire without action, without seeking, without asking, without committal is like a fire without oxygen. Such a thing cannot be. And so it is that desire without action is merely a fiction, a story in one's mind that has no reality to it. Only when there is action taken in faith can there be a kindling of passion. I like what Sam Snead, the legendary golfer said: "To win, you have to have the talent and desire -- but desire is first." You must want to be passionate about God and working for Him.

Secondly, there must be faith. We must have an expectancy that God’s will is that we be passionate about our work for Him. Thus, we can expect God to honor our desire, and expect that God will work in us to produce the passion necessary to do the works of faith He desires.

In short, we must step out onto the playing field with an air of expectancy, with a keen desire to win, indeed, an expectancy that we will win the game, and that we will excel. While Michael Jordan stepped out on the court with a supreme confidence in his abilities that were honed to perfection, the Christian steps out on the court of life with a confidence in the Supreme God who is perfection, and Who has called us unto perfection. We step out with confidence that He who has begun a good work in us will continue that good work unto the end. We step out confident that the God who called us unto good works, and created us unto good works, will perform those good works through us.

Thirdly, there must be a working of God in us to develop the passion. It is said by the Psalmist that God gives us the desires of our heart. "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." (Ps 37:4). Some misapply this verse to mean that whatever it is we desire, God will give it to us. No, God gives us desires. He instructs our minds as to what it is we should desire. In other words, He plants the passion within our souls to do His good will.

There is a complex intertwining of our spirit and God’s Spirit, and His will and our will, that is difficult to sort and explain. Suffice it to say that when we submerge our will in His will, we begin to act as one, and in accordance to His will. We begin to desire the things of God for we have the mind of Christ. And so then, we are able to have our passion for service to our King grow and grow and grow, until it consumes us, until there is nothing else in life we’d rather do than serve our God, even to the point of giving up our lives, if need be. It is this kind of commitment, this kind of passion, that drives men and women to sacrifice their lives on mission fields, or to serve the unloved and unlovely, to work in soup lines, to bind festering sores, to teach the unwashed, and to feed the physical and spiritually starved of the world, and to submerge their personal desires in the will of Jesus Christ.

It takes time. It takes faith. But never forget, it also takes desire, coupled with action. And if you don’t have the desire to be passionate and consumed with God and His work, ask Him to give you the desire to be passionate. 1 John 5:14 & 15 is your assurance He will answer that prayer. Those verses say: "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." (1Jo 5:14-15). You know it is the will of God that you be passionate, so ask Him for passion.

Step out in faith with the sure knowledge that God not only wants to use you, but will use you. Scripture tells us to do with our might whatsoever our hands find to do (Ecc. 9:10). Do what God has placed in your hands to do with all your might. Beg God to ignite your passion to serve Him. Surrender yourself to the will of God and to the work of God. Then find good works to do, and expect your passion to grow. As a flickering flame in a small fire, God will nurture it and build it, feed it and give it room to grow. Our God is a faithful God.

Too many of us want to be the Michael Jordan of Christendom, the Paul of today. Wrong desires. Wrong reasons. Don’t desire greatness. Desire rather to be an integral part of Greatness, and of a Great work. Desire to be sold out to that work. Desire to be a part of that work,, even if it only means cleaning the toilets in a small mission school, or weeding a garden for the mission, or mopping the floors at the Rescue Mission. That kind of desire leads to passion.

Too many of us hold back, afraid of where passion might lead us in our service for God. One of the marks of those who have done great things in life is that they have conquered their fear of failure. Michael Jordan noted that he has "never been afraid of failure." He certainly played like that. He took shots on the court that were impossible, but they won the game. He played with intensity even though his team was losing, and saw his team emerge with the victory against impossible odds. And he was a mere mortal playing a game.

You and I are not playing a game. We are in a life-death arena. Certainly we have more to be passionate about that a Michael Jordan or a Vince Lombardi.

God wants us all to shine brightly. God wants us all to excel. God wants us all to let our lights shine brilliantly. We should want what He wants. We should want to be brilliant beacons of light in a dark world. We should want God to totally and completely take over our lives.

But alas, we don’t all really want that, do we? Oh, we want the fame. We’d love the glory. We’d like the attention, and we’d not shun the praise. Ironically, if we truly are submitted to Him and His will, we’ll not want the glory, we'd shun the attention and reject the praise. Our passion should have a single eye, a single purpose summed up in as follows: “...whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31).

The question then is, what do you want? Do you really want to be passionate about Christ, about your service to Him? Do you wish you had the passion you see in some? Do you yearn for the sold-out abandon of some of the old saints of God whom you’ve read about or who may have been blessed to have met?

We have not...because we ask not.

I dare you to beg God for passion.

Return

Articles

Home