Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. I trust in You, my God! Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord Point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me for You are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in You. Remember O Lord your unfailing love and compassion which you have shown from long ages past. Forgive the rebellious sins of my youth…Archive for passion
half-hearted
I somewhat usually make it to a bible study at work on Thursdays and today we touched on Acts 5 with the story of Ananias and Sapphira. I couldn’t recall that story, but pretty much they lied when it came to sharing money for selling some land (they kept some of it instead of saying they were giving it all). Now it sure seems that the gist here for people to understand is NOT TO LIE, especially (because well it says that) not so much lying to men but LYING TO GOD. This couple end up dying right on the spot for it. Yeah serious stuff (so don’t lie).
But the lying part didn’t strike me as the important part – what did was this from the New Living Translation:
The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this?
Man – they could have not chosen to sell the land and they would have probably been OK. But they chose to but only partially did it. What struck me was their halfheartedness in the effort! I feel like Peter could have said “Do it or don’t do it, but dude if you’re going to do it, do it ALL THE WAY!”.
It reminded me of some verses from Revelation:
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!
They were lukewarm. Not hot; not cold. It sure seems like they were “spit out”, didn’t they? This gets to the heart of what I desire for my life – to not be half-hearted; to not be lukewarm. “Give me a Hunger” Lord – guide me and direct me WITH A PASSION, a ZEAL, a DESIRE for You.
What I am finding (and continue to be shown) is that this heavily involves me being deeply involved with others. Not so much in doing things, but connecting with others. Such as the homeless or my g-men (growth group/”wild guys on fire”). This I believe is my passion (now I need to pursue it… and get guidance & wisdom from others on it).
What is yours? And are you working to pursue it with passion? Not half-heartedly; not lukewarm but HOT! Because if not, seriously you may want to just stay cold…
yearning
I am yearning to do something creative….
- Playing the piano again
- Drawing again
- Exploring the woods again
- Building anything
- Learning something new
- Maybe going out on a canoe
- Maybe fishing
A lot of the stuff I did when I was a kid really. Before all the ‘constraints of life’ were put on. Now I’m sure I can’t really throw off these “constraints” and really they’re not all that burdening. Some are actually great! Well maybe not directly but indirectly, especially when it involves children…
But I don’t want to do these things just to do them. But to really enjoy them. Because it’s something different. Some of them because it’s something creative – something I can do in a different way – and out-of-the-box.
Do you yearn? Almost everyone who will read this probably works some day job somewhere and is so used to their “schedule”. Work. Eat. Want to nap. Try to Work. Leave and go home. Eat. Maybe do something. Maybe something else. Sleep. Wake up. Repeat. Yeah we get that Saturday and Sunday off but…
There’s something Jim pointed me to called how to be creative, that is really thought-provoking but maybe just a bit too long to read all the way through. But probably really worth it. I really don’t care that much about applying it to business/work though. Just to life and everything we do. So silly in my mind to always want to do things like everyone else. Now I do see and agree in that there ought to be rules (which I would agree about but maybe not in how some choose to apply and have others apply them)….
So there’s all these yearnings I have. But what I wonder about frequently is where is my passion. I know I really enjoy programming, but is it my passion? Probably not fully but then again, I’ve not really thrown myself fully into let’s say making games or anything (nor do I expect I will do this). I’ve got some ideas, some clues though on my passion. They’re floating around and one day will become apparent. Who knows… maybe one will come and go and another one is next… The interest and yearning for some of these things comes and goes. But deep in the back (or would it be the bottom?) of me, it really doesn’t.
I really liked this part:
If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough. In the meantime, you’re better off going out into the big, wide world, having some adventures and refilling your well. Trying to create when you don’t feel like it is like making conversation for the sake of making conversation. It’s not really connecting, it’s just droning on like an old, drunken barfly.
