Heart's Passions

Time Needed: 45 minutes

“To see visions or to hear call without being faithful to one’s most ardent yearnings is utterly impossible. Our strongest feelings revolve around our wants and desires, and we have been taught since our first summer to give these only slight attention, so that when we think of drawing close to our real longings we have feelings of guilt and shame. … When we succeed in ignoring our wants they either find expression in destructive ways or cause us all kinds of ills and problems that make us self-centered and self-serving. Out of touch with the life-giving energy of our wants and desires, we are apt to become flat and uninteresting people.” (Elizabeth O’Connor, Cry Hope, Cry Pain)

Scripture Meditation:
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

Teaching:

As mentioned in the previous session, God rarely moves, with any degree of significance, independently of His people, the Church. That means that He moves through us, and that His works take into account who we are, including our deepest passions and yearnings.

Not Too Strong, But Too Weak
Most of us have been taught to ignore our deepest yearnings or passions. This may even be true if we’ve grown up in the church. We’ve been taught (somewhat falsely) that the essence of the Christian life is self-sacrifice, and the center of our selfishness is all our wants and desires and dreams. We’ve been told that we must give up on our dreams and yearnings and desires, and that sacrificing them makes us more holy. Listen to what C.S. Lewis has to say about this:

“The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)

“He will give you the desires of your heart.”
Notice how simple of a statement this is – it is a statement of fact. All of us have deep desires in our heart. All of us. Of course, many of us are disconnected from those desires. Because of false teaching in the Church, abusive and demeaning relationships with family or friends, or simple negligence, many of us don’t have a clear sense of what we are passionate about in life. Nonetheless, these passions are there, buried inside and waiting to be unearthed, or perhaps gushing forth uncontrolled, like a volcanic geyser, in unintended ways, because we’ve tried to cover them up too long. Some of us may even have a sense of our passions and long to see tehm made more real. Regardless of where we’re at in this process, God longs to give us the desires of our heart. God longs to see our desires fulfilled. God dreams with us and wants to work alongside us to see those dreams become reality. How does this happen? Look at Psalm 37:3-6.
Through Psalm 37, God is teaching us that the deepest desires of our heart come most clearly into focus (we’re “given” them) as we focus on God. Focusing on God has the interesting effect of focusing us! Look at the exhortations of the psalmist here: “trust in the Lord”, “do good”, “cultivate faithfulness”, “delight yourself in the Lord”, “commit your way to the Lord”, “trust in Him”. The psalmist challenges us to cultivate a life characterized by trust in God. This trust involves both the affections of our heart and the actions of our body. We both delight ourselves in Him and commit our lives to His way. Then we find that the desires of our heart, our deepest longings and dreams, become more and more of a reality; we see them coming more and more into focus as we focus our lives on God.

Help is available.
Some going through this assessment may have really connected with the Elizabeth O’Connor’s quote at the beginning of this session. Perhaps you feel particularly disconnected from your passions because of damaging influences in your past from parents or friends, who subtly (or not so subtly) made you feel unworthy or who ridiculed the passions which God has given you as a gift. Maybe you feel that if you were to try to list your passions now, you’d be unable to do so, because you’ve been manipulated into thinking that only certain kinds of passions are legitimate. If this is you, don’t worry, help is available. First, I’d encourage you to still perform the following exercise. You might be surprised at what is there and what God brings up all by Himself. He has this amazing way of being powerful, especially when we ask Him to reveal ourselves to ourselves. Second, it will take time. Your community, your pastors, your friends are here to help you heal wounds, clear away rubble, buff up the worn spots, and generally help you discover who God has called you to be, including in the area of your passions. Ask them for help. Talk with your assessment counselor. Maybe that means you’ll come back to this exercise again in several months (even years), so that you can gain a clearer picture. That’s totally okay. I only encourage you to not give up doing these two things – delighting yourself in the Lord and committing your way to Him.

Remember, embracing our passions and channeling them in service of our calling helps us discover more fully who we are in Jesus and enter into the abundant life he longs for us to enjoy.

Exercise:

Getting a sense of our passions is critical in coming to self-understanding. God places desires in our hearts. These desires or passions, as well as the “burdens” for certain causes or issues, can be very helpful in guiding us to paths of fruitful service with God in His kingdom. The following questions and exercises are intended to help you uncover some of the passions and motivations that God has placed in your heart.

Questions to ask yourself:
When I think about the following issues, I often tend to get angry:


What are my dreams?


What brings me joy?


What do I see involved in the Kingdom of God?


I see these qualities in others which I admire or desire to see in myself:


See if you can identify with any of the motivations listed below. Look for trends in your life that might help you identify your passions. Remember that these are all God-given motivations, and are sinful only when used selfishly. Each one can be used effectively for God in ministry.

I love to …

Design/Develop
I love to make something out of nothing. I enjoy getting started from scratch.

Pioneer
I love to try out new concepts. I’m not afraid to risk failure.

Organize
I love to bring order out of chaos. I enjoy organizing something that is already started.

Operate/Maintain
I love to efficiently run something that is already organized.

Serve/Help
I love to assist others in their responsibility. I enjoy helping others succeed.

Acquire/Possess
I love to shop, collect, obtain things. I enjoy getting the highest quality for the best price.

Excel
I love to be the best and make my team the best. I enjoy setting and attaining the highest standard.

Influence
I love to persuade/influence people. I enjoy having an impact on the attitude and behavior of others.

Perform
I love to be on stage and enjoy being in the limelight.

Improve
I love to make things better. I enjoy taking something that someone else has designed and improve it.

Repair
I love to fix what is broken or change what is out of date.

Lead/Be in Charge
I love to lead the way, oversee and supervise. I enjoy determining how things will be done.

Persevere
I love to see things to completion. I enjoy the satisfaction that comes with persisting at something until it is finished.

Follow the Rules
I love to operate by thoughtful policies and procedures. I enjoy meeting the expectations of an organization or boss.

Prevail
I love to fight for what is right and oppose what is wrong. I enjoy overcoming injustice.

After reviewing the list, can you find two or three motivational directions of your heart, areas that stir your heart with passion? Were there any not on this list?

List your areas of passion here:
1. 2.

3. 4.