Welcome to Tanzania! A place where the dust is plentiful, the ants are many, the mountains are beautiful and the missionaries are numerous… and God is surely alive. Our ministry month has been quite a plentiful and frustrating one with quite a variety of duties to uphold to. We have been spending our time evangelizing door to door, leading and preaching at church Bible studies and building relationships within our community. We have met quite a few Muslims as well as a fare share of Born-Again Christians and all of them have one thing in common: passion.
About a week and half ago, Brooks, myself and the majority of two other S-Squad teams had a scheduled debate with a bunch of students from a local Muslim University. The battle of opposing faiths began early and lasted about 5 hours, filling the location of choice, a church, with intensity and tenacity for what either party believed in. Each side had its fair share of argument against the other, but both had such great passion. The difference between the two sets of people was really seeing how deeply rooted what each side was fighting for.
I personally was incredibly frustrated and I had to go outside and catch a breather with Jesus. My heart was really struggling and I began to get too emotionally involved in the situation. I was pretty darn upset with the state of affairs inside of the church and I did not want to jeopardize the potential for passion in others for my own sanity. Once Jesus finally slowed my heart rate and began putting the situation in terms that I could understand, I finally started to see what my deal really was. The problem wasn’t actually a problem, but the fact that I was too passionate about Jesus to be able to clearly listen and learn from the opposing party.
This really got me thinking about how passion really works. You can choose to have passion or compassion for just about anything, but it is up to you to choose the best way to apply it. I started to think about how passion shows up in every day conversations, how someone could become passionate due to the influence of someone else, or how a person could confuse the strength in passion with pride. I myself became passionate, just by thinking about how those concepts could become misunderstood and how I could try and break things down in a practical way to try and help someone else. My mind wandered from topic to topic, until I began to think about the only thing I should be passionate about: Him.
I could choose to be lost and confused, filled with passion for my own causes and my own triumphs. I could watch those around me be overcome with pride for their own outlook in the world, thinking that their way is the only way. My heart became so upset because I so desperately wanted everyone to feel the passion I felt for Him, His love and His truth. I wanted people to see that everything, every aspect of anything anyone could come across was because He made it so. Then Jesus directed me to read the Gospel of Mark… and everything made sense.
Once I read through Mark, I had such a practical view on who Jesus is and just how bold and passionate He spoke, without any wavering or faltering. I made my way to the false accusations Chapter 14, when the high court was putting Christ on trial. Once Jesus admitted that He indeed was the Christ and the Living God, He was accused of blasphemy and sent to prison. The most overwhelmingly passionate part, however, was the judge. He tore his clothes off after being swollen with pride for his own cause (verse 63) and screamed and spit on Jesus, completely nude, for his own sake.
As I read Mark, blown away by how someone who did not agree, ripped off their clothing and imprisoned the proprietor of true passion, I started to think about the Muslims. As I tried to see where a faith I do not believe in could muster up so much to argue about, I thought about so many other references in the Bible that speak of people ripping off their clothes for the sake of one thing or another. http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=tore%20his%20clothes&version1=NIV&searchtype=all&limit=none&wholewordsonly=no There lies 10 different places in scripture where someone ripped off their clothes for reasons of pride or passion. Those examples were included in the scriptures to convey a serious message: just what are you willing to risk for the sake of our God? He was compassionate enough to send and sacrifice His own son. I can’t say that I am ready to stand in the middle of Uptown Charlotte, stark naked and screaming about how much I love Jesus, but I have a few questions to ask all of you.
When you think about passion, what do you find yourself being passionate about? Would you be willing to do something crazy for the sake of His name? How strongly do you attest to Jesus, or do you find your load in life being heavily weighed on your own shoulders? When you really look at your heart, is it filled with pride, or is it overloaded with passion?
