The Folly and Power in Passion

Passion is an incredible thing. Almost no one lives without passion. But are our passions moving us along the right direction? We can sometimes be guilty of not seeing the wood for the trees. Our passions harness our energies, yet they can also control those energies. Such control doesn’t always end well.

These are a couple of good quotes to focus our attention:

“It breaks the heart of Jesus when we’re more passionate about electing politicians than evangelizing people.”

~Rick Warren (via Twitter)

“Please help repeal the R rating on ‘BULLY’. EVERYONE should be able to see it. Sign the petition...”

~Demetria Lovato (via Twitter)

Sometimes we focus too much on the government of our nations; we see injustices, through our preconceived filters and biases, and it impassions or riles us. We’re known for losing the plot on occasion. This is often manifested in anger.

Other times we don’t get passionate enough regarding some of the many issues of real injustice in our world. These are the currents of injustice that have swept through history, and will continue to repeat themselves. We, today, have an opportunity, though, to have our say—to do something real, however small.

Understanding Passion And Refining It

Our passions can be empowering or disempowering; enabling or disarming.

Passion sits on a knife’s edge. We cannot help be passionate, and therefore we’ll at times be overly zealous or, likewise, languid. With passion we’ve made a choice where our allegiances lie. Of a million things, perhaps, we’ve chosen one. And there we hammer our stake. Having made our choice, feeling fooled if we change, an admission of an earlier mistake-of-choice, pride—though it’s always the nemesis—somehow becomes our friend. Overbearing passion highlights pride.

Passion makes us prideful, unless we understand its incredible influence and decide, by the power of God, to refine it; to be alleviated from its weight. In other words, we wish to amalgamate our passion within every conscious reality. This way, our passion finds a place within our thinking without pushing out other important thoughts.

Passion And The Broader Perspective

Harnessing our passions is important in this: the more passionate we become in one area the less we’ll see of another area that’s equally important.

When we become fully divested in our passions, we do well to keep half of one eye on the broader perspective; the things we may, otherwise, be missing. Remembering that passion sits on a knife’s edge, and we’re never too far from imbalance, this broader perspective helps us abide to the prevailing truth. Our passions don’t get us into trouble as much.

***

For all the strength of passion, there are the obvious weaknesses. It’s better always, whilst being passionate, to retain our broader perspective—that which serves the real truth. Passion must be harnessed if it’s to be our ally.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.