Passionate or Not

 

                The idea of passion is often overlooked and ignored. Without realizing it, most people don’t give much thought to what things about which they are passionate. Everyone is passionate about something, and this is easily identified by how they spend their time, how they spend their money, and towards what they direct their thoughts.

               Do you love money, do you love entertainment, do you love your family, do you love food, or do you love empty distraction so you don’t have to think about anything of value? This is an important subject that everyone should consider, as our use of time, our use of money and the use of our energies will speak the truth about what is actually important to us.

               The person who identifies with any particular religion should live a life that is in line with the beliefs of that religion. For the follower of Jesus Christ, attending church, prayer, fasting, and personal sacrifice should be the framework upon which his life is built. The life of the follower of Jesus Christ should look radically different than the average American citizen. The majority of people in the United States are focused on and distracted by sports, movies, music, or entertainment in general.

               A common phrase in the world around us is, “You cannot take it with you.” Putting great effort into being wealthy, being comfortable, and buying material things instead of focusing on being holy and preparing one’s soul for eternity is a grave mistake. To use a simple metaphor, if you have fifteen minutes to spend on making your future as good as possible, will you spend that time by doom scrolling, by watching YouTube videos, or will you put that time toward adding value to your life and the lives of your loved ones.

               To spin this metaphor around, knowing that you will one day pass away, will you spend the unknown amount of time on buying material things, being distracted by silly entertainment, or will you prepare yourself for eternity?

Garbage In, Garbage Out

There are a great number of metaphors that can be used to communicate the concept of what you put in is what you will get out. A good place to start would be with the image of food and the resultant health that follows. If you eat fast food, highly processed foods, sugar, deep fried anything, and cheap beer, you will receive a flaccid, weak body in return.

If you spend your free time filling your head, heart, and soul with social media, pornography, and Hollywood gossip, you will find that your mind will automatically go to those subjects, filling you with nothing of value but empty, foolish, childish content. If you spend your free time watching television and movies, your heart will soon learn to only find value in these things and will be bored with and not drawn to holiness.

 The perfect remedy to not being distracted by these things is to find someone who is holy, who is drawn to that which is good, right, and true, and spending your time with this person so you have a good mentor to imitate. Instead of doom scrolling and randomly flitting about the internet, read the lives of the saints, read the Gospels, read the Epistles, and seek out someone with whom to have godly conversation that fills you with light and truth.

Imagine three glass jars in front of you. One is filled with lemonade, one is filled with urine, and the third is filled with gasoline. All three of these liquids look a great deal alike. If you put one of them in the tank of your car, the car will operate properly. If consume two of these, one of them will kill you, the other will likely make you ill but the third will provide you with dietary value.

Always think of your heart, your soul, and your mind as vessels that are meant to hold that which is good, true, and beautiful, rather than the silly, the foolish, the inane, and empty distraction. Many people put a great effort into remaining physically healthy but they sadly forget to keep their heart and mind healthy. Always question what it is that you are putting into your five senses. Think of your eyes, your ears, your taste, your touch, and your smell as gates that feed your heart, soul, and mind.

Be balanced in your approach to life. Remember to keep your heart, soul, and mind clean and healthy rather than settling for easy distraction. Work hard to keep your mind focused on goodness and truth.

The Pursuit of Excellence

 

                I have often heard it said that one’s performance should never be labeled as “sufficient” or “good enough”. When someone puts in energy, time, and effort into accomplishing something, the end result should be that of excellence and noteworthy of recognition. When we go grocery shopping, in most cases we don’t buy the cheapest item available but instead, I hope, we buy the item that has the best nutritional value and quality.

               Those with whom we choose to spend our time ought to be people that add value to our lives, urge us onto excellence, and challenge us to be better. If someone is part of your life who is negative, is not helping you improve, or is causing you grief, pain, and disappointment, you ought to reconsider with whom you spend your time and energy.

               Everyone has twenty-four hours each day, eight of which are mostly likely spent in sleep, a couple hours of meal preparation and eating, a couple hours in cleaning and organizing our homes and hopefully several hours a day with loved ones. If someone spends the bulk of their waking time immersed in social media, television, or movies, he is settling for “sufficient” or “good enough”.

               How one spends his time and energy at work should never be aimed at “sufficient” or “good enough”. Push yourself, challenge yourself, and aim for the highest bar of which you can conceive. Don’t settle for being just another employee who contributes just enough to not get fired. Be the one with wisdom, with the answers, and be the one to whom people go for help and direction.

               Don’t settle for mediocrity, don’t be content with the low bar set by others, be the one that excels in every field and who challenges others to improve themselves.

Plans for the Future

 

        From the time that someone graduates from high school or from university plans begin to be formed for finding employment and plans for saving, for purchasing a home, getting married, having children, and retirement. It is well understood that each person has only so many years to live, to enjoy life, and to save up until old age overtakes them and they are no longer able to bring in an income. 

There is nothing unreasonable about any of these things. The important point to keep in mind is that everyone eventually dies and will leave the earth in the same state that they entered it. You can take nothing with you into eternity. The reality of a limited existence on earth is something that must be acknowledged. 

One could use a metaphor of travel for one who will eventually die, leaving behind everything that he has acquired in his years on earth. If you don’t prepare for your time traveling, you will find that your destination may be less than you had hoped for. If you transition into eternity without being prepared for what awaits you there, you will find yourself miserable and confused.

From a Christian perspective, if you focus your attention on being holy, on loving your neighbor and doing good to those around you, you will find that your heart and soul are prepared for an eternity in the presence of God. If you have not found holiness to be worth your time to pursue while alive on earth, you will find an eternity in the presence of a holy God unpleasant as well. 

In whatever state you leave your heart and soul, your eternity will be reflection of that neglect or preparation. Be prepared, acquire knowledge, pursue holiness, and look forward to an eternity of holiness and love so that you are not miserable for an unending existence. Like failing to prepare for a marathon, your time running the twenty-six miles will be miserable if you failed to think through the ramifications of your laziness.

Setting Aside Immaturity

                When you were a child, you thought like a child, you spoke like a child, and you acted like a child. You enjoyed childish things; you spent your time and attention on entertainments directed at children. Hopefully when you reached your teenage years, you transitioned away from childish things and began to focus on thoughts, words, and activities of a teenage nature.

               When you reached university age, hopefully your use of time, your thoughts, your words, and your actions matured beyond that of childishness and teenage years. I challenge everyone reading this short collection of thoughts to self-analyze, self-critique, and ask hard questions about your use of time, your use of money, how you think, how you speak, and what you find entertaining.

               If you are an adult, are you still entertained by silliness, foolishness, vulgarity or games? In whatever shape your mind and heart are in, your role as a parent and friend will be impacted by these things and will influence those around you. Work hard to be the best version of you, be the one in the room with wisdom, with knowledge, with answers, and be the one to whom others go to for direction.

If you are still a child in thoughts, words, and actions, then this is a sad reality out of which you should mature. Add value to your life, to the life of others, and be the mature one in the group rather than the silly child who is entertained by childishness. Set aside immaturity, set aside emptiness, set aside shallowness, and set aside vanity. Find those things that are excellent, those things that add value to you and to others, embrace them, and live like an adult.

Satisfaction or Distraction?

 

            There is a path before each one of us which is surrounded by numberless decisions, all of which will determine how we proceed in life, how we succeed or fail and how we treat others. Each one of these decisions can be interpreted by either love for self, seeking for empty distraction, pleasure, and vanity. The other path is that of choosing what is good, is true, is right, and is beautiful. How we define these things is founded on what we determine is the ultimate authority in our lives.

               Do we look to ourselves, to our limited knowledge, to our limited wisdom, and to our limited experience to make these decisions, or do we look to others who have proven themselves as wise and experienced. Again, how we see others, how we interpret their advice and guidance will be founded on what we believe to be foundationally true.

               In the same way that we should be criticizing ourselves, we should be understanding how others think, speak, and live. Are you and are they focused on what is genuinely true, good, and beautiful, or are you and they distracted by the emptiness of the pleasures of the world? While lemonade and gasoline may look similar, if you pour one in your gas tank on your vehicle, it will provide you the means for travel but if you pour the other you will destroy your means of travel.

               Appearances can be deceiving, the story we tell ourselves and the story we tell others, may be true, may be deceit, and in many cases, we present ourselves in the best possible light, rather than being honest about the true nature of our heart and soul. What you put into yourself will directly impact the quality of your thoughts, the quality of your words, and the quality of your actions.

               The quality of our lives and the path we travel are determined by what we put into ourselves. If you find yourself struggling with falling into the path of empty distraction, find someone who has wisdom and honest experience to help you redirect yourself toward the pursuit of goodness and truth. We can be easily deceived by their words, but we can easily interpret their actions and how they treat others. Remembering to acknowledge that people will always present themselves in the best possible light by using their words to impress you.

               Finding someone who is wise, experienced and godly is a difficult endeavor. These things can be seen in their actions not necessarily their words. Another error that can be made is that of trusting someone else to suggest someone in whom to find guidance. It is a rare occurrence to find someone who genuinely cares about you, and is thrilled at the possibility of helping you find the path to holiness.

Personal Critique

 

            There are a few different types of knowledge. There is the knowledge that we know about ourselves, the knowledge that others think they know about us, the knowledge that others know about us, and the knowledge we think we know about others. In all of these situations, dishonesty is a genuine possibility. We try to convince ourselves that we are good people, downplaying the horrible and devastating reality of sin and corruption in our lives.

               It is a common situation for someone to try to convince themselves that their sins, their weaknesses, and their corruption is not that bad. And at the same time, they look upon other people, at other people’s sins, weaknesses, and corruptions and impose judgment upon them, considering them worse than themselves.

               Far too often people will look upon others, condemn them for their sins, and forget that all sin is contrary to human nature, is destructive to what man is intended to be, and is anti-life, regardless of the sin. The best response to observing and considering sin is that all sin is opposite to the path the Christian is to be walking.

               In all honesty, each person needs to be extremely self-critical, and unrelenting in his judgment against himself. He needs to consider all men better than himself and not make excuses as to why his sin is less important than the sins of those around him.

               Analyze yourself, be critical of yourself, and be forgiving of others, considering them better than you. Only you know what goes on inside your thoughts and heart. You do not know what others are thinking, feeling, or considering when they are home alone or when they are struggling with something. We can look at someone and wonder why they think, speak, or do the things they do. This takes place because we don’t know the details of their life, their upbringing, or their current social/family situation.

               Learn to be sympathetic, learn to be forgiving, and learn to judge only yourself.