Passionately Alive

What does it mean to be passionately alive?
And why have I titled my blog as such?

This short phrase is one I have used to characterize my identity for quite some time. To me, being passionately alive means living genuinely, openly, joyously-embracing what each new day brings. It is a phrase that has not always been true of me, and confessedly, is still not always true of me. The truth is, if I don't live with passion, then I don't want to live-whether it's passionate with joy or passionate with sorrow. I can only be passionate about what I do when I rest in the truth that there is purpose behind my life-that such things as meaning and value exist.

Sometimes my passion rubs people the wrong way, sometimes it scares them, but my passionate self-emotional, raw, and vibrant-is my truest self and it's the self I cannot be afraid to show the world.

When I hear the parable of the man selling all he has for a treasure in a field, or story of the guy who leaves the comforts of his former life in pursuit of "the promised land," i'm hearing stories of passion...stories of reckless-or perhaps more accurately not so reckless-abandon. And these are the people whose joy will be made full, people who in jumping out into the depths will find that they can, indeed, walk on water. Why? Because the strength of their identity lies not in themselves but in another, and their joy comes not from earthly triumphs, but rather in a sure and steadfast promise of what is to come.

Hebrews 12 talks about running a race with endurance and finishing well. Who is he who finishes well? It is he whose eyes are on the finish line, rather than on the struggles that come along the way or on the runners to his right and left. Oh may it be said of me that I finished well, rather than letting my heart grow jaded and cold. May be said that I pushed on with passion, with a strength that was not my own.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all." And so, we press on.

Without hiking over the root-studded hill, you can never see the pristine lake on the other side. Without braving the early evening chill, you can't enjoy the beauty of a sunset on the coast. Without enduring to the end, we'll never see the fruit that comes after a long labor. You see, many of the best things take time and hard work to come to their fullness. But they will come.

It is true that in abandoning ourselves we will find ourselves, just as it is true that after the dead of winter comes the new birth of spring.

Although we often can't see the pearls because we're too busy looking at the oysters, the pearls are still there-waiting for us to find them...