Living a passion-driven life

When I attended a community meeting* last evening, I was not the only one who was completely knackered from a gruelling, hard-paced week and who had to force myself to turn up. God faithfully rewarded our grit.

Many thanks to Derek Chong who had himself just finished a full day of teaching, exhausted yet eager to lead us in a discussion about mission and passion. By the end of the evening, our passions were ignited, and we left for home feeling blessed, happy, complete, uplifted, united, excited and encouraged. 

In order to evangelize effectively as a community, we need to first identify our own individual passions so that when we come together on mission, we will intentionally tap on the different and unique passions of each person and present a powerful, transformational front: we will witness as one, cohesive whole - with Christ as our head - and empower those we meet to live in the fullness of life, and with great joy.

It is therefore also important that we know why we exist as community so as to know what we want to do and who we want to reach out to; we need to vocalize clearly and internalize a shared sense of mission.

As we shared our views with one another, it became apparent we came from different perspectives and desires and yet, these very differences displayed the beauty of community, a unity in diversity. In spite of our different views and temperaments, we ultimately shared a common goal that can be distilled in one phrase: to know Christ and make Him known.

Derek encouraged each of us to share our passions with one another, stressing the importance of living out our passions. He reminded us that whatever our pain and happiness were connected directly to our passions. Questions to ask include what pains me and makes me want to change the world? What excites and energizes me? What makes me come alive and brings meaning to my life? It is only when we connect to our personal passions that we can then work together as a team and become part of a successful outreach. There is still much for my community to digest and work through, but we are excited.

Being more intuitive, it was good for me to analyze my passions for I have since been able to articulate them more fully. This is valuable for I better understand what fulfils me, and I can now put more energy into living out my passions mindfully. It is pointless and draining to do otherwise.

It goes without saying that living a passion-driven life is not all high octane tripping and barrel loads of fun for it will encompass sacrifice, disappointment, hard work and perseverance.

It will require us to overcome our fears and insecurities, to put out into the deep against better judgement born of human intellect.

It can get chaotic, messy and require greater, and painful, surrender to God’s will.

It will expose our weaknesses and push us to take flying leaps of faith off cliffs of unimaginable heights.

It will be terrifying, stressful, demanding and arduous. At the same time, it will be exhilarating, enriching, fulfilling and life-changing.   

When we talk passion we usually mean something that we do in our free time, an avocation, or a distant dream. The prevailing sentiment is if we are unusually lucky, we get to enjoy what we do at work. I would like to propose that you reconsider if you do think of passion in those terms.

Passion should be an integral part of your life’s labour. You should be spending most of your waking hours pursuing your passions. Passions are dreams God has placed in your heart. They are shaped by your life experiences, constantly being refined as you evolve and grow. Do not let them wither and die out of sheer cluelessness or deadly procrastination. Discover them and nurture them so you can live each new day with great expectations and joyful verve, and accomplish great things along the way. 

Make passion a habitual way of living. 

* I belong to the Institute for World Evangelisation ICPE Mission Singapore as a Companion.