Acknowledging passions

Imagine you were born in 2002.  You are male but you find yourself being attracted to other guys.  The culture at large will tell you that this is all fine and normal, you merely are oriented that way.  But at the same time, the Orthodox church is telling you that homosexuality is a sin and that one should never follow their passions, simply because they are “natural”.
This is the difference with the Orthodox church in comparison to the Evangelical/ Protestant world. The latter will tell you that homosexuality is a sinful perversion and you need to not do it.  That you need to be cured. Orthodoxy, on the other hand, will tell you that it is simply a passion that some people have, not much different that any other sexual passion. It’s mere presence means nothing. Natural or unnatural, as Christians we simply do not excuse away the passions we have a “natural” and then indulge. No, we fight against our passions and our soul tells our flesh what to do, not vice-versa.
The question here is not one of natural or unnatural, perverse or normal, but of who is in charge, one of to whom you are listening and following. When we think and act, these things are done according to the leadership of something. When we think or act, are we following the whims of our flesh, i.e., we "feel" like doing it. On the other hand, the Orthodox church would tell us, we ought to live in a way that is preparing us for an eternity of holiness. We can look back at the saints of historic Christianity and those things that the church has always believed and practiced, and align ourselves with this. We do not follow and practice something based on our feelings, but on what the church has identified as holy. We do not follow our passions, we follow the direction of the Holy Spirit. But this is not a personal, interpretive thing. It is a corporate, defined, articulate path of light and holiness.
Whatever our sins, whatever our inclinations are, are irrelevant. If our desires or inclinations are leading us away from holiness, we must fight against them. For our very life depends upon it.

Boredom

Boredom is a sin, so say the church fathers. This is because when we allow ourselves to become bored, we are saying that we have nothing of value upon which to expend our time and energy. But this is nonsense. The is always something productive to do. There are always prayers to be prayed. There are always sins to confess. There are always neighbors to love. There is always something to learn.
A bored attitude comes from a heart wallowing in and controlled by the passions. It is a heart that needs to be entertained and titillated. Instead, our hearts should be filled to overflowing with love for God and love for our neighbor. When we think of others, rather than ourselves, we will never be bored. When we are striving after holiness, we will always recognize some way of improving our life or the life of someone else.
We must learn to look being our own comfort and entertainment.

Emulation

Within Eastern Orthodoxy, we believe that there is one path to God, that is, salvation through Jesus Christ alone.  It is the work that Jesus accomplished that brought man out from under the power of death.  It is now our responsibility to use the tools, provided by the church, to attain theosis.  God became man so that man can become God, not in the ontological sense, but in the union sense.  As part of the body of Christ, we come into close, intimate communion/union with God.
With that in mind, we see two possibilities.  There is the monastic path and the lay path.  Both are the same, in that, both are striving after holiness, through love for God and love for neighbor.  One thing that really jumped out at me this morning, as I sat musing while drinking coffee, was the monastic example.
The monastics are those who have devoted their lives to a singular focus on purifying their souls and seeking after God.  The layperson is the one who has (acceptably) chosen to take on the responsibilities of spouse, children and finances.  But we lay people can and should look to the model of the monastic for our own efforts toward holiness.  One thing that is very distinctive of the Orthodox monastic is their insistence upon work.  The monastic is not one who simply does nothing but pray and depend upon others for their livelihood.  No, the monastic, while he is praying, is working with his hands and supporting himself.  We laypeople could take notice and emulate them.
In whatever vocation we have, we can pray.  The Orthodox church has, for centuries, strongly encouraged the "Jesus Prayer", "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."  This prayer contains it all, recognition of who Jesus is, who we are and our need of God. 
So the question then is, "Who are we emulating?"  Do we look to the world, the successful businessmen, the entertainers, or the athletes for a model of our lives? 
Who forms our lives?