Passion – Patient – Addiction – Freedom
Reading James 4:1-10, I saw the word “passion” appear several times. From the Late Latin “passio-” meaning suffering, it may have come from earlier Latin “pati-” meaning to suffer, where perhaps we also get the word “patient” also possibly from the Greek “pema” meaning suffering.
So a patient is one who suffers. One who is suffering must have patience… the ability to withstand or endure the suffering. But how does this connect to passion?
James 4:1-10 says that our passions are at war within us and this war causes fights amongst us. These passions and desires for things we don’t have cause us to murder, fight, quarrel and covet.
These passions seem to lead to suffering! People talk about a “passion project” and they typically mean it in the context of a hobby or personal undertaking that COSTS them a lot of time, money… or said another way, pain.
The pain of the passion project is what oddly validates our love for it, no?
In an article by Edward T. Welch called Motives: Why Do I Do the Things I Do, he writes, “Addicts may be enslaved, but, at some level, they volunteer to be.”
Just like the person with the passion project… they have chosen this pain, this extreme investment of their OWN choosing. It was not required by their employment and their immediate family may not understanding the drive behind the passion project.
The passion… the voluntary suffering… the voluntary addiction… for selfish pursuits. This is what James is referring to as what causes quarrels, fights, coveting, murder.
Other quotes from the Edward T. Welch Motives article that stood out to me were:
- “Here is a general principle: your attitude toward God will be revealed in your worst human relationship.”
- “…no one has to be taught idolatry: we figure it out all by ourselves.”
- “If you think about the things that have led to change in your life, you will probably find that people were usually the catalyst.”
This last point got me thinking as I have often seen this to be the case in life. For myself, getting married certainly led to changes. But having children? That really caused a lot of changes in myself as I realized the responsibility of being a provider, nurturer, guardian for these little lives.
Edward T. Welch goes on to write that “A growing knowledge of a spouse or friend leads us to acts of love.” Other people can become our passion. They can become what we patiently endure, expend time and treasure to help, and this process changes US in the process.
He wraps up the article discussing that while discovering and knowing our motives has value, our efforts should be primarily focused on knowing God, looking at Christ, growing in the knowledge of Him.
For some reason, I wondered about this… is our alone time spent with God in some sense “selfish”? Are we pursuing what’s good for us and neglecting our service, our passion, for other people?
But God did say things like love your neighbor AS you love yourself.
In Ephesians 5, the discussion of the relationship of marriage, Paul writes “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own body. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.”
So there seems to be an interesting dichotomy between our inward focus on our own relationship with God and our outward focus on our relationships with other people.
The analogy from the airline flight attendant who describes that in case of an emergency, you must first put on your own mask before helping the passenger (even a child) next to you comes to mind.
God is our oxygen. If we are using all of our time on our own special passion projects or if we don’t spend ANY time ingesting His air into our needy lungs, our empty brains, our cold hearts… how then will we have any energy for those in our own household, let alone the wider world?!
A different book I’m reading, GenX Religion by Richard W. Flory and Donald E. Miller, which is specific to how my generation (anyone born from 1965 to 1980) has grown to consider religion, illustrates this exact point:
“Xers are not afraid of the truth, nor are they fooled into thinking they can change the world. They have by and large given up on large-scale utopian schemes and are working for practical change in their own lives, those of a few close friends, and, when feeling expansive, that of their neighborhood. Thus there exists a duality within their mentality: the coexistence of harsh realty and a desire and hope for better days. They respect people who live below the hype of expectations. Indeed, this is a cynical generation, but it is this way because it wants something more from relationship and people in authority.”
I posit that those in their mid/late 40’s and early 50’s are looking for change in their own lives, and often that is motivated from a desire to be more useful in the lives of those they love.
Also much effort is spent in counseling, thinking, scrolling to simply feel good about one’s self. In the case of overcoming trauma during formative years, this is completely healthy and understandable.
But in all forms of self-improvement is the danger of focusing too much on our own passion… to forever remain a “patient” and not become a “wounded healer” as the saying goes.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom”
Why?
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
That’s why. The laughter of our shallow social media habits… the joy of our personal passion projects (my comic books included) cannot be a substitute, cannot become or remain an idol, that keeps us from drawing near to God.
Our dirty hands and double-minded brains will keep us from coming to Him.
Our dirty hands can’t reach the oxygen of His truth… we won’t single-mindedly focus on true LOVE OF OURSELVES in the sense that we want to be ABLE to LOVE OUR SPOUSE or child, or someone in our household, or… if we’re feeling expansive, someone in our neighborhood.
To look to God, to humble ourselves, is, in a sense, the best thing we can do for ourselves and positions us for usefulness in the disasters that befall the passengers next to us on this long flight we are all on together.
Andy Heavilin 