Passion and Purpose
Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily, from the soul, as something done for the Lord and not for men. Colossians 3 v 23 AMP
And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Colossians 3 v 23 MSG
We recently attended a very formal School Speech Day, with the distribution of prizes awarded to many of the students. Awards are given for the different academic subjects taken at school but there is another prize which is called the School Award for Inspirational Contribution to School Life. This award is for those students who have been involved in school life in a very wide sense-in Music, Choirs, Bands, Scouts, mentoring younger students and being involved in outside of school activities also. These students can inspire others.
The students were addressed by the Headteacher and a visiting Speaker who in her long career had worked for the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence, been an Advisor to a Prime Minister, a Governor of the BBC, is a Peer in the House of Lords, and who had learned several languages during her illustrious career. But both of their messages to the students emphasized one thing-the importance of ‘going with your passion’. They were encouraged to choose the subjects, the courses, and the career path that would ‘give them a buzz’, that they were fascinated by, and not the things that teachers, parents or peer group would wish you to do. This is a very different message to the one that I received at A level. The path may not the easiest, traditional, may be out of the ordinary, but if it is your passion then you will succeed. It will be the thing that you can put your heart and soul into.
In the words from Colossians, Paul was addressing servants- those who had few rights, choices, or entitlements, if any, but he instructed them to work with heart and soul, as if they were working for their God and not for their masters.
One of the books that has had the greatest influence on me is The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. At the very beginning of his book, Warren states that God uniquely created each person- skills, looks, personality, temperament, abilities, and that each person is created for a purpose. “I am your creator. You were in my care even before you were born. Isaiah 44 v 2. Nothing in our life is arbitrary or accidental. God had very specific purposes for us that would allow us to be fulfilled, secure and happy. He knows our passions. But we must link in with Jesus.
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone. Ephesians 1 v 11-12 MSG
PRAY Father, I am not like anyone else. I don’t have to try to be like anyone else. Your design and purposes for me are good. I can trust you with my passions, my heart, and my soul.
All Thinking
I would rather be what God
Chose to make me
Than the most glorious
Creature that I could think of.
For to be born in
God’s thought
And then made by God
Is the dearest, grandest, and
Most precious thing
In all thinking.
C. S. Lewis
Jane Coates
5 November