5 Cups of Coffee: Passionate Living

What are you passionate about?  That's a question that often gets asked of high school students, college students, and other folks that are trying to find a new direction in life.  Is that the right question to ask?  I'm not sure that it is.

While you ponder that question, take a look at our most recent video.

I told the folks on Sunday that I could either go short, or long with this video because as a church we're very focused on missions and service.  Those are things that we are passionate about, but it's not about the things.  It is just a part of who we are.  It is how we live passionately.  That is the key to what God is calling us to do.

Over the last few posts I've been talking about 5 Cups of Coffee and what that means for us.  You can check out the whole series here.  The purpose is that we better understand how we can talk to other folks about our faith, and how we can begin to develop a clear vision for how our church is going to live out the mission of the church in Marceline.

Part of that vision is our passion.  But it's not what we are passionate about.  Those things can be hard to pin down.  Just ask any high school, or college age student about that, and most could give you an answer, but it probably won't be a strong one.  There's always a few that have it figured out.  They know what they are passionate about.  For some, its so strong that it has translated into a way of living.

It's that transition that is important.  God doesn't call us to be passionate about things.  He wants us to live passionately, and then the things will follow.  Take, as an example, the Israelites as Micah is writing to them.  One of the better known passages of Scripture comes from Micah 6:8.  To get a handle on it, take a look at Micah 6:6-8.

These few verses are building to verse 8.  There an important question is asked.  

What does the Lord require?

The answer comes at the end of the verse, and is the response you give when you want to sound very pious and faithful and churchy.

If you really want to be good, you shrink it down to just six words: Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly.  The challenging part of this is, what do you do with it?  It sounds good, but what does it actually mean?

For this, we look at what is going on with Micah and the Israelites. What we read is that God is giving his complaint against them for the things that they are doing wrong.  But when we only look at that, we're missing something because they're in a context that we're not familiar with.  When we shift the context a little we can get a better sense of what is going on.

Think of it like walking into the middle of an argument between parents and their kids.  The parents are saying things like, "I put a roof over your head, food on the table, clothes to wear, and even a phone, and what are you doing?" and the kids are replying with typical teenage exaggerations, "what do you want me to do, make my bed 100 times a day, wash 1000 dishes, walk the cat until its whiskers fall off?"  You've probably either been a part of, or seen one of these conversations take place.

What helps explain all of this is what takes place next.  It puts everything into a new context.  Its the third person narrator that comes in and explains everything.  This is verse 8, "I want you to have a good life, living up to your potential, and I want to help you get there."  In an ideal world, that narrator would be Morgan Freeman, because he should narrate everything.

This is what is taking place between God and the Israelites.  God is not demanding payment for what he has done, and the Israelites are not being petulant teens.  God is going them saying I want what is best for you, remember that I've been with you the whole time, helping you to do this.  Let me show you more of what I have prepared for you.  The Israelites are responding with, we want to do the right things, but we don't know how.  Just tell us what to do and we'll do it.

God is explaining to them that you don't "do things" for me.  Rather, you are something for me.  Meaning, you don't try to do what you are passionate about, because just doing things doesn't actually get you where you want to go.  God wants us to live passionately for him, not by doing, but by being the best version of ourselves. 

What we're given in verse 8 isn't a specific list of things to do.  What we're given is guidance on how to be.  Our goal is to figure out what that means for us, as we go forward.  With that, here is the question to answer for this post.

How would you answer this question?  Remember this isn't a list about the things you do, but its about how you do them and why.  If your list is full of things to do, stop and ask yourself if you're just trying to do things, or if these things are a part of yourself that help you to live passionately for God.

As you work through this question, spend some time in prayer and listening for God's voice as he calls out to you to follow, not because God requires it, but because you know that God has more in store for you, to help you be the best version of yourself that you can be.