Crochet as a hobby has been moving up on my list of "passions" in the two years since I learned. Right now it holds the number five spot behind God, family, horses, and working with kids. Passion, when defined as extreme, compelling emotion, is not a word I would use to describe myself. An introvert by nature, I'm not prone to radical feeling, or at least the expression thereof, so to make it personal, passion translates more as an enthusiasm and commitment to something I care about, something I can talk about effortlessly.But before emotion, and before enthusiasm, the dictionary defines passion as "the agony and sufferings of Jesus during the period from the Last Supper to the Crucifixion." Though the phrase "passion of the Christ" is colloquial, I hadn't realized that it had been chosen to define the word. What a strange, yet surprisingly appropriate, word to choose to describe those final days. What could define extreme emotion more than perfect love poured out in a painful, sacrificial death? Jesus showed us what it meant to live a life of passion and compassion. His passion was for God's glory and for people, and so should mine be. Enthusiasm for hobbies or material possessions is just a tool for accomplishing that.
In the course of making this set of potholders, I scrutinized my passion for God, and in some ways, found it wanting. But though I'm weak, and the emotion lies deep, I want to become ever more passionate for Christ.
"The love which they [early believers] felt towards the Lord was not a quiet emotion which they hid within themselves in the secret chamber of their souls, and which they only spoke of in their private assemblies when they met on the first day of the week… but it was a passion with them of such a vehement and all-consuming energy, that it was visible in all their actions, spoken in their common talk, and looked out of their eyes even in their commonest glances."
~ Charles Spurgeon from Morning and Evening, June 5
