They Speak With Passion

      Everyone has something that they are passionate about. Most parents are passionate about their children. I try to call the grandparents every other month, and every time I call they always wonder how I am doing, and then they tell me about my Aunts, uncles, cousins, and every other relative, because they are passionate about Family.

      My mom has always been a crafter, at least since I was born. My mom has two areas to store her stuff. She has boxes and boxes of fabric, and when she was weaving baskets, she had a whole wall in the garage of reed. Now mom has expanded her craftiness to include scrap booking. My sister-in-law Jill I think was the one to get her started. Soon after the initial experience of scrap booking, mom started buying all kinds of cutting tools, punches, paper, and other stuff. Soon mom was calling my other sister-in-law April, her sisters, her mom, and even the nieces and granddaughters, to scrapbook with her.

      When it comes to crafting my mom wants everything to look perfect. When she made and altered the dresses for my older brothers wedding, she was very observant of every detail, and was not happy until everything looked great. She use to make drill team flags, and often the fabric would slip as she was sewing and cause the flag to not look right. She would rip the seems out and sew the flag again until they came out perfect.

      If anyone was to ask my mom a question about any crafting suggestions she might have, be ready for an ear full. She enjoys crafting and making photo albums, and things like that. One time I was talking to her and asked how the scrap booking was going, about thirty minutes later I knew about all the cool scrap booking things she was using. She was really into the special cutting thing, which makes some jobs so easy, she will tease me for forgetting what it is called.

      Have you ever been in a conversation with someone where they are passionate about something that you don’t really have an interest in? My worship leader is passionate about guitars, and when he is able to play a nice one he is in another world. One night a guy that had been going to our church for about a month brought a nice guitar one Wednesday night. My worship lead was looking at every detail, and calling the other band members over to look at it. He started talking to me about the guitar, and in my mind I was trying to act interested but I really wasn’t. My mind kept wondering and honestly I cannot tell you anything about that guitar, except that it was a guitar; I forget even what color it was.

      I would bet Moses was passionate about the promise land. Moses got to talk with God, an experience that not that many people in the Old Testament got to do. In Deuteronomy Moses is reminding the Israelites about the law, and how to conduct themselves in once they cross the Jordan. The people already heard the law before in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, but Moses wanted to make sure the Israelites remembered the law. Why, because Moses was passionate about the Israelites and himself, having a relationship with God. Moses did not want anything to come between the Israelites and God, nothing that would hinder their relationship with their Creator. However some were not as passionate.

      Joshua 7, a man named Achan, tried to keep some of the dedicated things for himself. What was Achan thinking? It is obvious that he did not take Moses seriously, because Achan directly disobeyed instructions given to him. Did he think no one would notice? As a result of Achan’s disobedience, Israel looses its next battle.

      Throughout Joshua and Judges there are many many examples of people that were not passionate about their relationship with God. Judges that did whatever seemed right to them, idol worship, and many other things that Moses mentioned and emphasized to the Israelites as things that they should not do.

      Ravi Zacharias says in his book “Cries of the Heart”, when he was talking about philosophical debate, “Once again this is not to minimize philosophical debate but only to show its limitations and the ease at which the sophisticated can hide behind a mountain of words. Having dabbed in philosophy a fair bit and enjoyed it, I am never the less convinced that if one is quite adept in his or her discipline, he or she can almost ‘prove’ anything that one desires. There is no point in arguing with a person who is determined to explain everything away. Nothing good can come if the will is wrong.”

      Ravi and I are not saying that we should avoid people who are not passionate about the thing we are passionate about. Also I am not saying you should avoid talking with people, who believe differently from you, but such conversations can be traps, that are hard to get out of and you soon find yourself wondering how to get out.

      There is a system of things we as human all agree are wrong. We have laws that reflect most of these laws; don’t steal, don’t lie, do not hit others, and many more. I know someone is disagreeing with me out there, so let me ask you if I could do something, pop you on the mouth. Sounds stupid, right, but I bet you would not like it if I popped you one on the mouth. That is because no matter how much we may want to do something there are laws ingrained in us that we expect others to live by.

      If I were to ask three people what color my car was, I would probably get three different answers. One might say it is green, another dark green, and the last might say a metallic green. All of these answers would be correct when looking at my car. How ever if I were to ask who was the first president of the United States of America, the only correct answer would be George Washington.

      Human philosophy is like the question of my car color, it is a matter of perspective and usually boils down to life experience. There is also that common phrase, “That’s what I like to believe.” However philosophy is dependant on the person, and their mindset.

      If I were to pop you on the mouth you would say, that is an unacceptable behavior. If I were to ask who was the first president of the United States of America, the only correct answer is George Washington. But when I ask, which religion is the correct one, uh oh, we turn this question into a big philosophical discussion. Look at the facts, not the experience and changing art of philosophy.

      Is there any evidence outside of philosophy for any of these religions out there? Some, Buddhist have very weak evidence. The Buddhist got their beliefs from a man who died and 400 years later someone wrote down about him and his thinking. Hindus, uh if you can get a clear definition of what they believe, no, their religion is so scattered and without what could be called guidelines if would be hard to support any part of their religion without the use of philosophy. Jehovah Witness, Muslims, Mormons, Christian Scientist, and some others rely on one person who had a revelation that others did not share in the experience but bought into the idea, but once again other then the Muslims, no tangible evidence for their beliefs.

      The protestant Christian faith, yes there is a lot. Many civilizations outside of the Israelites wrote about the Exodus out of Egypt. Christ’s life on earth and His death, many people and civilizations outside of Israel wrote about. On a mountain in Turkey archeologists are trying to get permission to examine a mountain where people have supposedly found Noah’s ark. There is still more evidence outside of philosophy that supports the Christian faith.

      Passion and the things we enjoy can be funny at times. A serial killer may have a passion about killing people; does that make his desire to kill acceptable? A person who enjoys breaking the law, does not make it right to continue in his passion. A farmer who enjoys planting and harvesting, cannot just farm anywhere he likes. Passions can be both good and bad, philosophy can be correct and correct, it is a matter of experience. Is the philosophy you have adopted supportable or one man’s mind wondering?