I have two teenage boys.  Josiah, my youngest, dreams of being a movie producer. He spent most of his summer working to make enough money so he could buy a very nice, high dollar camera.  When he wasn’t doing that, he was on the computer, learning the latest techniques in video editing, lighting, special effects, or the multitude of other nuances that goes into the making of a great on screen story.

Caleb, my older teen, is a rock climber.  He lives and breathes rock climbing.  With a training regimen that would put some professional athletes to shame, his body is becoming a machine.  Last night he accomplished one of his goals for this year, he sent a very hard boulder project, the first person in our local climbing gym to climb this particular problem. 

Passion.  That’s what drives them both.  Caleb and Josiah have found something that they are passionate about, and so whatever it takes:  back-breaking labor, hours of study, sore muscles;  all of it is endured, even embraced in order to pursue the passion.

You have passions too, I know you do.  You were created with them, an endowment from your creator.  Paul said it this way: ‘I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.’ (Philippians 3:12). He understood that like you, he too was created for a purpose, and it was that purpose that consumed him. The problem, however, is that those passions are opposed.  Life comes at us, mortgages grow, responsibilities mount, and disappointments loom at every corner.  And we, well we choose to settle … for something less, something not as dangerous or as maybe just not as hard.  We become tired, disillusioned, even defeated; and we take an easier, smoother path.

The saddest part is that those effortless roads never satisfy, they just passify.  They lull us into a place of less than we really are, a place of complacence and compromise while all of the time leaving a void that we seldom even notice except for those times when someone else makes the great movie or climbs the tallest mountains.

You and I were created for more. Eternity has been set in our hearts.  We can ignore it, allow life to quiet it, and even refuse to accept it, but until we finally embrace it once again we will never taste the fulfillment of living in our God-given passions. Someday you may be watching a blockbuster produced by Josiah Kortje or tuning in to Caleb winning Olympic gold but the bigger question is: where will you be watching if from?

Like a popular commercial states: What are you waiting for, your dream is out there, go find it.

To the King,

David