Pure Passion

Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; therefore be zealous and repent.

Passion is such an amazing word. According to dictionary.com, it means "any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling." Perhaps that is why it has come to be the word that encapsulates the sacrificial love of the God-Man Christ Jesus.

When I was growing up, God and passion were rarely synonymous. As a kid, I would attend Sunday morning mass from time to time whenever my parents would take me and my brother. It was probably the most grueling sixty minutes that I had to endure. The only thing more arduous was this thing called "Sunday School." While some people think of snacks, games and coloring pages when they hear of Sunday School, this was not my notion when the words were combined. For me it literally meant "School on Sunday" (it was a natural thought when ours was typically in sync with the regular school year). What kid in his right mind would want to go to school on a Sunday? I had just finished going to school five out of seven days. Why would I want to add an additional day with an additional topic? Especially when our teacher, Sister Mary, always made it a priority for her students to understand this "schooling" was serious business. Memorizing prayers, beatitudes, and scripture were the rules of the day. Needless to say, church was not of much interest to me.

However, a seemingly ordinary day on the playground in third day became significant for me in my journey to faith. The school was Sallie Zetterower Elementary. The location was the swingsets. I had just met this kid at school who shared my religious tradition. In the midst of our conversation, he told me that he was an altar boy. This struck my curiosity. “Wow,” I thought, “This kid gets to hang out with the priest.” Immediately, I had the sense that I was in the presence of a bigshot. Then the words came that shocked me. "You wanna be one?" It seized my curiosity and my response was simple. "Sure." The next thing I knew, I was wearing a black skirt and white top on Sunday and carrying a candle in procession with the priest. From that point on, I jumped through whatever religious hoops were put before me. Still, something was missing.

The missing part was my heart. A few years later, through the loving witness of an aunt, God revealed to me the love story of Jesus. This story of the God-man dying in my place for my sin rocked my world. Fear did not drive me to the throne of God. The love of God gripped my heart. It wasn’t long until my heart burned with love for Him in return. Pure Passion. It was what I had been missing. My religious knowledge of the past had never filled me with life. Knowledge in and of itself will never bring life. 1 Corinthians 8:1 points out, "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." Every time I read this passage, I have a visual image of a blow fish—a fish that strikes fear in predators by puffing itself up when it actually has no real substance to it (love is real substance). For me, knowledge produced religious pride, and as a result, I truly could not see God.
Jesus himself said, "Blessed are the pure in heart! For they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). God is looking for people to respond to his AMAZING Love with passionately pure hearts. This pure passion drove me to a place of authentic repentance, and I have never looked back.

John the beloved pointed out that it would be this kind of love that would bring the lukewarm church of Laodicea to its senses. He said, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; therefore be zealous [passionate] and repent" (Rev. 3:19). Every time I can't see clearly, I have to check the purity of my heart. If we find ourselves struggling to have the passion we once had, we need to ask ourselves: who—or what—are we loving most? When we make Him our passion, we won’t need to prove it to others; they will simply see.