Passion

I was wondering lately if now is the time to change job. It is not because I don’t like the job but it is more of a question on passion. I was thinking if I would find the job where there is my passion. But the problem is “what is my passion?” I haven’t fully understood this word… I just know that people have different passions… passion for sports, passion for cars, passion for computers, etc. It is also used to describe how things are done… kiss passionately, paint with passion, passionate with music. I revisited a book by John Piper entitled “The Passion of Jesus Christ”. John Piper said that we associate at least four things with the word passion: sexual desire, zeal for a task, an oratorio by J. S. Bach, and the sufferings of Jesus Christ. He further said that the word passion comes from a Latin word meaning suffering. The book is about “why was Jesus Christ crucified? Why did he suffer much?” Why in a sense of purpose and not in a sense of cause, so John Piper cited 50 reasons why Christ suffered and died in his book.

In line with this thought, I happened to watch several video clips about Christianity – one about the persecution of Christians in China and the other is the spiritual revival in Cali, Colombia. I was deeply moved. I saw and felt a great passion in those people. They are willing to lay down their lives for what they believe is the truth. Some called them fools. I wondered how they could think that way. They stood firm even to the point of death? I was thinking if I could have the same passion as they have.

This morning I was enlightened by the message of Dr. Harold Sala. There is nothing wrong on talking about Christ’s death. But we should not forget the most important event which is His resurrection. This gives us hope. Our Savior does not remain in the tomb. The tomb is empty! Jesus is alive! God is always reminding me this chorus of a hymn whenever I feel that I could not go on with life – “because He lives I can face tomorrow, because He lives all fear is gone, and because I know He holds the future, and life is worth a living just because He lives…”

What a sweet reminder of how high, how deep, how wide and how long is the love of Christ!