Pastor’s Message for April 2022

What is Your Passion?

I have been asked that question at least a half dozen times in my life. In ninth grade we had to do career projects. I didn’t know what career to investigate. My teacher asked me, “What are you passionate about? What excites you?” At the time, I thought anthropology was pretty “cool,” so I investigated a career as an anthropologist. I never became an anthropologist.

When I was preparing to apply to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. My guidance counselor asked me, “Where’s your passion? What gets you really excited?” It was 1966; I thought I would like to be a diplomat. I applied to a school that focused on Foreign Service – working in the State Department.

By the time I was graduating from college, I knew that the Foreign Service was not for me. So, what should I do? Talking with one of my professors, he asked, “What is your passion? What do you like to do?” College teaching seemed exciting. Greco-Roman history was exciting. So, I applied to and was accepted by the UCLA graduate school in history where I got “turned on” (It was 1971) to a new passion – Medieval History. So, I went to Ohio State to study my new passion. And after two and a half years, came home to tell Nancy that I didn’t want to do that anymore.

“What are you going to do?” she asked. Which was just another way of asking, “What is your passion?” And that led me to seminary, where, at last, I felt at home. I had found my passion – until one of the counselors asked, “What is your passion in ministry? The mission field? Youth ministry? Chaplaincy? Teaching? Social work? Evangelism? The local church?”

ARRRGH!!! (As Charlie Brown used to say.) It was enough to make me pull out my hair! (That explains a lot, doesn’t it?) But, at last I found my passion – the local church.

What is your passion? Do you know? Have you thought about it? Are you doing it? Or are you just going through the motions?

Jesus knew his passion – to proclaim the Good News of God’s love, forgiveness, and new life for the whole world. He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration and set his face toward Jerusalem and the cross. And he never turned back. He calls us to follow him. Not necessarily to a physical cross, but certainly to a life that is faithful and is concerned about more than ourselves.

As the days leading to Good Friday and Easter tick quickly away, now is the time to ask ourselves, “What is my passion?” What do you know in the recesses of your heart God is calling you to do? What IS your passion? What are you doing to pursue it? It may involve some effort, even some suffering, but it is the way to “an Easter of unending joy!” What is your passion calling you to do?

Grace and Peace,
Dave Wilson