Commitment

It's not simply about passion....

It's not simply about lining your dreams up with those that God has instilled in your soul from the day you were born...

But it is about Commitment.

To be fully alive is to feel like all in your life is as it should be. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that. But you can't simply expect to have passion evoked in you; you have to find it. Yes, it takes soul searching.

Many lose themselves in the element of pure passion. Many a traveler has taken the wrong road by simply doing what seems exciting at the moment. Passion takes effort, and passion takes commitment.

Now, this may seem redundant of the last one, but bear with me. I do have a point. (And if you haven't read the last one, then for freaking crying out loud, go read it!)

It has taken me two years to learn what true passion is, and I still don't know the answers. I understand, I'm only 19, and I know I will forever be defined by my age and status. But I have learned a lot in the last two years.

Lets look at life this way.

Life is a story. In the prologue, God has written in your heart and very soul what he longs the most for you. He desires for you to live this life that he has planned for you. In the first chapters of your life, you begin to learn what passions and talents God has bestowed upon you. Now, the question is: will you follow what you know to be true?

As in every story, there are two ways to go. The way you desire the most, and the way that seems safe. Safe is never the way to go, and we are supposed to go the way God desires for us. Now, what a lot of people do not realize is that when your desires align with God's, that is when you find yourself to be fully alive.

"With great power comes great responsibility", as is said in Spiderman, can be translated as "With great passion comes great commitment."

What is this telling us?

I was told by someone that you will find yourself in grave trouble if you live a life simply led by passion. I disagree with this. I believe we were called to live a life of passion. No, the Bible does not say "Live with passion". But...If we are to be Christlike in all we do, that shows we truly are to live life with passion. Jesus Christ passionately loved, and loves each and every one of us...so much so that he lived a life passionately for one thing...to passionately die on a cross to release all of us from a horrible and tragic ending to the story. But if you know anything about the power of the cross, then you know that it took commitment. We know from Luke 23:39 "One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed 'So you're the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself - and us too, while you're at it.'" Has this ever hit you before? That Jesus actually did have the power to remove himself from that Cross? Yet he chose to stay there, for you and for me. For all of man kind.

Now tell me that wasn't passionate love for life.

But it took commitment.

Now, in the whole process of committing to our passions. We have passions. We have dreams, and hopes, and fears, and lies. Lies that would hinder us from what we are truly passionate about. If you are truly passionate about anything, you will not simply walk away and pretend like you were never passionate about it in the first place. If you are passionate, you FIGHT for what you are passionate about. Only pansies walk away when you begin to lose passion. If you ever have believed, or even the slightest cared about what you were passionate about, you will stick through it and fight. You will not walk away.

A true warrior pursues a passionate life. You may be confused about your passions, but if you look closely, you will find what you are passionate about.

Now tell me this, does God evoke any passion in you that is wrong? If you actually give up a passion, then it was clearly not from God. However, if you walk away from a passion that you knew (or know) if your heart that God truly did place there, and you walk away simply from doubt, then quite frankly you are not much better then the thief who was crucified beside Jesus.

And yet, commitment takes passion as well. When things begin to get tough, you can not simply walk away. You must choose to choose that passion.

As they say, love is a choice as well as an action. This goes for passion as well. Passion is a choice. To lose a dream should take grieving. I have lost almost every dream I ever had, and I have grieved for them. They are lost, for now, and I must face the days with less passion than the day before. But I know some who simply walk away, and start a new one...with no grievance. This is not the way of the barbarian...or the poet...or the Braveheart. This is the way of the faint hearted, of the weak, of the pansy.

One last thought on commitment. If we are to live a passionate life after Jesus Christ, and are to stay committed to Him, we must choose to be committed. If you lose passion for the on thing you know to be true, then you will lose commitment. Jesus Christ never chose to stop passionately loving you...instead he passionately died for you. How good is that repayment if we give up the passions he has placed in our hearts so that we will better serve him and all of mankind.

As I once said: It takes thousands of men with courage, strength and skill to fight a war; but it takes one man with passion to lead them to victory.

Matthew 13:18-23