Passion for God. What does that mean? How do I nurture it? That's been the focus of my reflection for the last several weeks. I want to be passionate every day...not just sometimes, but every day.
"I dare you, while there is still time, to have a magnificent obsession." William Danforth
Can the Lord Jesus and advancing his kingdom on earth be my magnificent obsession? Passion for God involves love, desire, an internal motivation, being driven to do something, having an obsession, having something that I want to do, that I'm eager to do. Passion involves wanting to accomplish something, to giving my life to something. How can I have passion, how can I live passionately, every day?
Thirst. Emptiness, unquenched desire, longing -- all of these seem to me to be an invitation to passion. When I'm hungry and thirsty, that's when I get to the place where I realize that nothing I'm trying to do can really satisfy me, and I turn to Jesus. "Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again." (John 4:14a)
The Lord Jesus, when we come to Him thirsty, gives us the Spirit of God Himself. He is the refreshment we are desiring. He alone quenches my soul's restlessness and emptiness. He alone satisfies. I'm freed of emptiness. Freed from the ceaseless need to find something to satisfy me. Quenched. Well-watered. No longer driven to meet unsatisfied needs to be loved. The Holy Spirit is the river flowing from the center of my life and He turns my passion to find something to satisfy my deepest longings into a passion for Himself and a passion for advancing his kingdom on earth. He is to be the focus of my passion, and the source of my passion. Every day.
We know this, but in another sense, we don't know this at all. For me, passion everyday has to do with staying focused on Jesus, and his passion, and learning to have his passion be mine.
In the chapel at St. Anthony's, a craftsman has created the Sierra Nevada mountains and placed the Cross of Christ in the center. Flowing from the Cross is a shimering mosaic - symbolizing the river of life, the Holy Spirit, flowing into the world. The river rushes down the wall and then flows onto the carpet and down the platform, out to where we sit. It's a beautiful visual image of what Jesus said to the thirsty Samaritan woman: "indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14b). Letting the Spirit of God become a spring of water welling up within my soul and flowing out into the world -- passion. Every day.
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"Two weeks have passed already since we were all together at the Springs Retreat! The retreat was all I had hoped for, and more! I would like to express my appreciation to each one of you for the countless hours you spent in planning, preparing and praying for, and then facilitating, the retreat. I learned so much from every one of you. I'm grateful for this time, set apart, that I got to share with you and the other women on the retreat. I was blessed by the experience of being on the retreat and want to thank you all." -- Martha Deal
