Wednesday, October 29, 2008

What is your passion?

If I had to narrow down to one passion, it would have to be knowing and loving God. It would leave out too much of my life if I didn't mention my second greatest passion though. God's people. I know I am supposed to love ALL people but my passion is for God's people. I have a serious obsession with the Church. I don't mean the building, it is just a place to meet with the people, who are the Church.

The reason I say KNOWING God is because I don't think we can love someone well if we don't know them. And if we love them, that should inspire us to get to know them. One of my favorite things about God is there is always more to know about Him. An endless cycle of discovery and adoration. He will never get predictable and boring, if it truly Him we are interacting with.

I think part of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is also getting to know them.

With all this in mind, I was wondering at how some of my interactions with people seemed orchestrated by God, Himself, and I realized.... God is teaching me how to love! One moment at a time. One situation at a time. I don't know about you, but I have always had the desire to love and be loved but had no idea what to do with the desire. I always do too much or too little. Say the wrong thing, come across in a way I don't mean. Have bad days and only care about myself. I realized we all have to learn how to love. Truly love. Not the selfish, I-just-want-you-to-make-me-feel-good-about-myself-love, but the I-will-consider-your-needs-before-my-own, (because I know God will take care of my needs), kind of love. (Phil 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.)

So, now I am wondering if all God given passions start with the greatest commandment? A little different twist on loving God and people? If you had to narrow down to your greatest passion, what would it be?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's so wonderful to read how much you love God, and His people, and are seeking to grow in your love for others. I really enjoyed this post, thank you.
My greatest passion? I think it would be to strive to grow in my love and worship of God.

Pat said...

Tawny,
Thank you for your visit to Sweet Tea. My passion is God's people also, especially God's Girls!! We are such a unique group and so full of love for God and love for one another.
Greta post and some really good stuff to think about!
Bless you lady,
Pat

Tawny said...

This is one of those times I wish I had lots of readers, so Icould find out if my theory about passion and the great commandment is true. Oh well! :) You two are with me. Thank you both for your encouraging words and sharing your passion.

Anonymous said...

I think as we live our lives, our passions change (taking for an assumption that our passion for God continues to grow).

My passion at the moment is to understand what love really is. Christ said that we should love God with all ourselves and people above our selves.

I think if we truly understood what either of those two looked like, our lives would be so much different.

Tawny said...

I agree with you Tony, that our passions change as we grow. Thanks for answering. If you want, this is some of my thoughts on the love thing:

http://tawny-learningtolive.blogspot.com/2008/09/love-and-peace.html

Or you can just keep going through my posts til you get to love and peace. It is a couple pages back.

I wish I knew more about computers, I could make a link to it.