Get your passion back!

Today we are going to keep staying positive, and the message is about getting your passion back.  

You know, we think about passion in marriage, or passion on a honeymoon. In a relationship, after the first year or two, passion can decrease, and you need to work to keep your passion.  

We can have passion for work. You might start a job so excited; this is your dream job! But a few years down the road, say, “I’m tired of this, there’s got to be something better out there.” 

If you’re looking to get your passion back, you may go on vacation, thinking that time off and time away will give me a new perspective. 

Many years ago, I worked in a homeless shelter. The counselors there had a saying they used to tell the clients of the shelter: “Wherever you go, there you are.” What did that mean? Well, a lot of homeless street people travel. They might hop a train or buy a bus ticket. They go somewhere else to get away from their problems. Maybe they come to Seattle with great hopes. They’re excited. This is a different place than where they came from. But over time they experience troubles: they don’t like the weather, the people, or their case worker. Pretty soon they decide, “I will go somewhere else, and everything will be different, and better.” But of course, if they had mental health issues or problems with addictions, wherever they went, their problems came along. So, wherever they went, there they were. Once, when I lived in Seattle, I went on vacation to see friends in California. It was a big trip for me, I thought, “Wow, the clients of the homeless shelter are probably jealous of me for this trip!” But then in downtown San Francisco, I saw a guy from the homeless shelter in Seattle, 800 miles away! I said hi, walked over and chatted with him. Ok, so my big trip was nothing for a homeless person. Sometimes we try something new to get our passion back. Passion doesn’t come from your location. It comes from elsewhere. 

We live in a time of Covid, when it’s harder to go out and do something different to feel better.  

This can be a discouraging time. I feel some of my passion and enthusiasm fizzling. I wonder, “How long is this wear-a-mask and social distancing thing going to go on? Life is not the same. I need a boost, maybe you do too, of passion and enthusiasm for living each day. How do you get back your passion and spiritual enthusiasm in a time like this? 

Well, if you think about some of the most important parts of life, you can understand them as your answers to three questions. You can ask yourself three questions: What am I going to do? We start asking two-year-olds, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” They often know what they want to do: they will be a fireman or a singer, or work in a grocery store. The second question is “Who am I going to be with?” We start thinking about that when we are very young as well. Who do we want to be our friend? Or who will we marry? The last question we ask is, “Who am I going to be?” Those are all important questions, but the most important one, the one you need to ask first, is not “What am I going to do?” or ”Who am I going to be friends with?” The most important question is “Who am I going to be?” 

The question: “Who am I going to be?” is the most important one, because it determines how you will act in the most difficult times of life. 

A person in the Bible who figured this out is Daniel. His story is in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel. He lived in a time that was not what he hoped for, like the time we are in. We are living in a time of Covid 19, with a lot of changes. This is not the life we dream of. He was living in a time of exile. He was Jewish, but he wasn’t living in his country, with his people. The king of Babylon had commanded that some of the best of the Jewish men be brought to serve in his palace. Daniel and Shadrach, Mishach and Abednego were some of those men forced to live in Babylon and serve King Nebuchadnezzer. 

The king ordered that these men eat daily portions of the Babylonian food and wine. The easiest thing for Daniel to do would have been to say, “Ok, I will follow the king’s orders and do what I am told.” However, Daniel 1:8 says, “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the royal rations of food and wine,” so he asked the palace master to let him out of eating the royal rations. Daniel’s faith taught him not to eat certain foods, and he wanted to be faithful  

Daniel 1:8 says Daniel “resolved.” He decided who he was going to be. He was going to be faithful to God. Faithful was who he would be. Why? Because God was more important than the king of Babylon or any other king. He was faithful to God, no compromises, because serving a good, just and compassionate God was who he wanted to be. Daniel’s story shows us even in a bad situation, your situation doesn’t determine your passion. Passion comes from who you decide to be. 

Daniel followed God instead of the king. That worked out ok. The palace master found that Daniel was healthy, even when not eating the meat in the royal rations, so Daniel was permitted to eat according to his faith. 

Next, the king had a troubling dream, and he asked the magicians and sorcerers to tell him what his dream was and interpret it. They couldn’t. When Daniel found out the king was going to have the magicians and sorcerers killed because they couldn’t meet the kings demands, and that he, Daniel, was supposed to execute them, he could have just done what the king commanded. But Daniel 2:14 says, “Daniel responded with prudence and discretion.” He wasn’t going to let a cruel execution happen when the men had done nothing wrong. Daniel was wise and just. He knew who he was. He was a follower of God. Passion is not a product of your situation; it comes from who you decide to be. Again, at risk to his own life, Daniel didn’t go along with the king’s scheme. Daniel volunteered, “If the king will give me a little time, I interpret the king’s dream. Daniel prayed to God for help, and God told him the interpretation of the dream. 

As Daniel continued to serve in the royal court, a new king, King Darius, appointed 120 officials to govern in the kingdom, and Daniel was one of them. As always, Daniel did a really good job. The other officials were jealous. They tried to dig up dirt on Daniel, but they couldn’t. They decided they can’t make any complaint against Daniel unless it relates to his religion. That’s the kind of person Daniel was there was no dirt to be found. That was who he decided to be: above all faithful to God, just and wise. The officials saw that was true. So, they got King Darius to sign a decree that for 30 days, people can only pray to the king. If they pray to any other person or god, they will be thrown to the lions. 

Daniel knew the decree, but he still went to his room three times a day and prayed to God. Because his passion didn’t come from his situation: it came from who he decided to be. The officials told the king on him, how Daniel had been praying to his God and not the king, and Daniel was thrown in the lion’s den.  

But God sent an angel who shut the lions’ mouths. And Daniel lived!  

Daniel lived life with passion in a difficult time! He was faithful to God, just and wise. Before he was sent to Babylon to the king’s court, he decided who he was. He resolved to be faithful to God, wise and just like God was, no matter what.  

Daniel didn’t make his decisions in the moment. He resolved ahead of time, who he was: he was a follower of God. He was just. He was faithful. And he carried who he was with him to Babylon, when he had to serve in the king’s court. Knowing who he was going to be gave Daniel a passion and enthusiasm for doing the right thing, and a spiritual enthusiasm for God, in everything he did. 

Living in a time of coronavirus, our situation doesn’t mean we just complain and get discouraged. We can live with spiritual passion for God. We can decide, when we look back on this time, we want to be able to say, “We resolved to follow God, to live out what is important to us. We resolved to be people of character, and we were!” 

My homework for you this week is to decide, who do you want people to say you were in this time? Faithful? Caring? Generous? Unsinkable? What is the word you want to shine in your life?  

Daniel resolved ahead of time, who he was going to be, and it informed what he did in each crisis he faced during a difficult period in his life. In our time, our way has gotten rough, there are potholes in the road. A very important question to ask is, “Who am I going to be?” What you decide, means you can live with passion and spiritual enthusiasm, when it would be so easy not to. Paying attention to who you are means you can live like Daniel, and be the inspiring, enthusiastic, passionate person you will be proud to be.  Amen.  

August 30, 2020