“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”- Oscar Wilde.
Now that the semester is almost a full month in gear, the excitement of seeing old friends and making new has digressed into the monotony of the daily routine- class, study, work, eat, attend a meeting, study, (maybe) sleep... rinse and repeat. It seems like every minute of the day is planned out with what has to be done or what is expected, so it is easy to lose sight of what I'm here at college, and on this Earth, for.
To learn. To meet new people. To go on adventures. To love. To explore my passions.
The latter is what my first six months of college has given me. I have fallen in love with human rights advocacy for anti-human trafficking, which I was hardly exposed to before coming to A&M. Without God guiding the steps for me to learn about the non-profit, International Justice Mission, I would never be so driven to fight this injustice of slavery. Even talking about this topic rivets excitement and joy in my soul because I have been given a great empathy and love for ending this institution.
In college and in the adult business world, we so often become lost in our "major" or our job that we don't even enjoy doing because we believe the lie that it is what is expected of us... Go to school, get married, work to support a family... Yes, while those are all wonderful things in life, many that I look forward to, there is so much more. Out of over 7 billion people on this planet, you are here right now for a purpose- to live extraordinarily. God has given us all each a specific passion- an intense desire or enthusiasm for something- for a reason. Vincent Van Gogh once said that, "“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.” We were not put on this earth to mindlessly check through the bullet-points of our day and life with no ultimate goal or intention other than it's what we are supposed to do in our society. God has given us each an individual a spirit of power and love and a spiritual gift, to pursue our passions that benefit His kingdom.
It is not a coincidence that another definition for "passion" is the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Or that the Latin root of Passion is pati- to suffer. Sometimes our passions do lead to personal sacrifices or suffering that we must endure in order to fulfill our destiny- whether it's a time unemployed looking for the dream job, or a period of doubt of whether you're in the right major. But Christ did not die on the Cross and wash us all free for us to live monotonous lives, not proclaiming the deep enthusiasm God has given us for Him, and for the passions in our lives. The least we can do for Christ's sacrifice is to live desperately desiring Him and to live passionately.
So piece together your dry bones, fearful minds and weary hearts, and become renewed in the passions that Christ gives us.
"Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
This is what the sovereign Lord says,
I will make breath enter you,
and you will come to life."
Ezekiel 37:4-5
