Passion & Fried Chicken

This past week in Wednesday Night Live, we talked about passion and desire.  The cayalyst for this discussion was a commonly heard statement (well, prayer) among Christians that goes something like this: "God, give me a passion and desire to follow you."  Does God ever actually do that?  I think that, as a teenage Christian, I used to convince myself that, when I prayed that prayer, God would magically wave His wand of grace over me and I would suddenly feel this irresistable compulsion to follow Him with reckless abandon.  Looking back, I think that I was probably just allowing my melodramatic personality to get the best of me.  After all, there is nothing quite as exhilarating as a self-manufactured "God-high"; there is also nothing quite as disappointing.

In reality, I think that God is much more practical.  To be sure, God's response to our prayers can be quite dramatic.  Sometimes, our encounters with God's love and provision result in tears, hugs, humbled hearts and raised hands.  But my experience has taught me that, in most cases, rather than supernaturally bestowing on me some characteristic for which I have prayed, God will much more often bestow upon me opportunities to develop a characteristic for which I have prayed.  When I pray for patience, God doesn't immediately give me patience.  Instead, He makes sure that I get stuck driving behind the oldest, slowest, and most distracted driver in all of Houston.  And, at that point, I recall my prayer (no doubt through God's reminding) and realize that, in that moment, I can either choose to be frustrated and angry or I can choose to be patient.  And this same scenario (with varied details) happens again and again.  In the end, whether or not I develop patience will depend on how often and how consistently I have said "yes" to God's way and "no" to my own.  One of the great things about God is that He allows me to have a big part in my own growth - something to take pride in, rather than just giving me what I want. 

Therefore, relating this same principle to the desire for passion in my relationship with God, I've discovered that, rather than simply giving me passion in my relationship with Him, God has given me ample opportunity to make choices that coincide with my desire for more passion.  In other words, while some desires are truly innate, most desires are born of a habit or experience wherein the desire is awakened and strengthened..  For instance, take my love for fried chicken.  Pardon the stereotype, but I love fried chicken.  I could eat it for every meal.  Dare I say I might even be able to blend it into a drink and drink it (couldn't resist).  But why, O world, do I love fried chicken so much?  It's simple: one day, I ate some and realized I liked it.  Then, another day, I ate some more.  Before I knew it, it was one of my favorite foods.  My experience and habit of eating fried chicken is the foundation of my desire for fried chicken. 

In the same way, the path to a more passionate, intimate relationship with God is much simpler than we make it.  We need to engage in habits and experiences that bring us into direct contact with God (spending time with God, learning/living the Word of God, fellowshiping with the family of God, loving/serving all God's children).  When we're intentional about making these habits and experiences a regular part of our lives, passion and intimacy with God is the natural outflow.  Much too often, we want to skip the hard work and just ask God to "make" our relationship with Him more passionate or intimate so that we don't have to feel bad any longer about the fact that it hasn't been made a priority.  And perhaps if God "makes" our relationship more passionate or intimate, we won't have to worry about this whole "process" thing.  We'll just ride on the winds of emotion and motivation and always be in a place where we feel like praising God!  Yay!

Wrong! 

Quick side-bar: (I think that perhaps one of the big problems is that people are really bored with their relationships with God.  However, I do feel that people who perceive Christianity or God-stuff as "boring" are truly only bored with what we've made it rather than with God Himself.  I mean, read the Bible; does God ever seem boring to the people in the pages of scripture?  Heck no.  He split up a sea a couple of times so His people could walk across it.  He imprisoned a guy in a fish.  He flung the stars and moon and sun into nothingness.  He made a prophet lie on one side for weeks.  He spoke through a donkey.  He destroyed whole cities and nations in an instant.  He healed the sick and raised folks the dead.  He died on a cross.  So, in summation, God is powerful, stubborn, creative, weird, freaky, just, compassionate, and loving....but boring?  Nope - at least not in scripture.  Truth is, if your relationship with God is boring, I can pretty much assure that God is not the reason why...you are.  But we'll save that for another day's sermon.) 

If you desire passion in your relationship with God, then start with the simple things like spending time with Him  in prayer and meditation and learning more about Him by reading His Word.  Learn to experience Him in everything you do and say.  Learn how to relate to God in a way that is special for you (you are unique to Him, you know).  And let me be honest: you won't ALWAYS feel like worshiping God - for many different reasons (believe it or not, I don't actually ALWAYS want to eat fried chicken).  But if these things are your foundation, then there is no limit to what you can build on it.  Your relationship with God will be passionate.  It will be dynamic.  It will be transformative.  And it will never be boring.

sray