Passion: Those things that catch your heart

So I've been thinking a lot lately about passion...Webster defines it as, "intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction." I had already been thinking about it lately and then we happen to catch the movie 'Rudy' on tv one evening this week. Talk about passion... wow, Rudy, had passion and it drove him to overcome the odds against him. Did he get discouraged along the way... yes... and yet, he never gave up. His passion kept him moving forward. He also had friends that helped keep that spark alive when challenges came. They reminded him of his passion. He has been an inspiration to thousands of people, all because of this thing called passion.

So my question/thought is this: "Where does one find passion?" "From where does passion come from?" "Where does one find both the vision and the strength to pursue that passion?" I once heard this saying and it's always stuck, "Many things will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart...pursue those".

So what things have caught my heart on this journey of life? And from where do I find the strength to pursue those things? And does pursuing one passion (raising my kids to love God and be happy, successful adults and doing so within a strong, happy marriage) mean putting other passions aside for awhile? Or is it possible to pursue more than one passion at a time? If God has placed gifts, dreams, desires within my heart... should I be pursuing them now, or are they just simmering there, waiting for the right time to pursue them? And when will the right time be? Will I know? Am I missing it?

Ultimately, I believe I need to remember to love God and love people... no matter what passion I may or not be pursing. If I am doing that, I believe I will be the most content at the end of my life. And yet right now, sometimes I want passion to arise up within me and give me another dream to pursue.

Glimpses of Eternity

Several years ago I read the book Sacred Romance by John Eldredge. And the one thought from that book that has been transforming my life is from Ecc 3:11, which reads: God 'has also set eternity in the hearts of men.' Pause and think about it... God has placed eternity in our hearts...what does that mean? Eldredge goes on to say that God places eternity in our longings. He says that 'in the heart of every man, woman and child is an inconsolable longing for intimacy, for beauty, and for adventure". It's in these moments (or longings) that we experience eternity. It's in those moments that take our breath away, you know, those moments when we feel totally alive, those moments that leave us speechless, those moments that we wish just wouldn't end... those are the moments where are longings are satisfied... it's there that we receive glimpses of eternity and can begin to understand what eternity will be like.

So this year, more than anything, I hope I pause from my busy-ness and my routines and rest in these moments. Cherish these moments. Let these moments remind me that I was created for so much more than this life. This life is a journey...a journey towards God's heart, where we will forever enjoy 'moments' in eternity! For now I'm thankful for the moments of beauty, intimacy and adventure that I get to experience right now. Moments like looking into my daughter's eyes and knowing that I was part of her creation, moments like my husband stealing a kiss when I wasn't expecting it, moments like flying across the water on skis, moments enjoying sunsets and stargazing, moments lost in laughter. These are the moments I was created for. These are the moments I live for.