These days everyone is supposed to have a passion, and any one will do—from athletics to electronics to statistics. The point is to discover some interest or ability, define yourself by it, and designate it as your purpose in life. Passion drives purpose.
Yet Scripture offers a different viewpoint. Rather than looking at what we feel, think, or identify as, the Bible looks at human life in terms of what God thinks and does. The concern is for God’s purpose, as when He created human beings for a fascinating reason…
that they should seek Him and find Him (Acts 17.27).
Friends, this is the reason we exist: to become increasingly aware of God and our relation to Him, so we may increasingly experience this relationship by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The desire for this relationship begins as a seed sown within every human heart. It’s our life’s primary motivation. It’s even that gnawing sense of incompleteness and restlessness to which St. Augustine referred:
“Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”
This purpose of seeking and finding God then drives every passion, even though most people are unaware of it. They go about their hurried lives, consumed with their passion for painting, parenting, or parasailing. They carefully self-construct an identity to present to the world. This identity easily becomes an idol—a fragile concept of the self that must be soothed and protected. In this way, countless folks live enslaved, bowing at the altar of another “unknown god” (Acts 17.23).
Reflect:
After considering your truest purpose, to seek and find God, what passions stir within you?
How do those passions relate to Christ’s commission to all believers (Matt. 28.16-20)?
