Are You Passionate?
An often-used word is passion. Think of how you use it. People often say, “I did this with passion.”
Tomorrow, there will be a Pinewood Derby Race at Sugar Creek Baptist Church for people involved in Awana. Kids and parents have built a car with passion to win a trophy for speed or for design.
Many people are passionate. Some are passionate about fishing or playing video games. When I go to a basketball game I see players with passion try to dunk the basketball. That really fires up the crowd when they are successful.
It might surprise you that the original meaning of the word passion is quite different than the way we use it today. In its origin the word means to suffer.
Some of you remember a movie several years ago titled The Passion of Christ. The days leading up to Easter are called Passion Week as we think about the suffering Jesus endured.
The original word for passion means to be afflicted or to undergo suffering.
Some of the children who compete in the Pinewood Derby Race tomorrow will go home without a trophy and they will suffer a little bit in their heart. There might even be some tears.
When we are passionate about something we want to be victorious. But we must also be willing to lose. Because we can’t always win.
In two weeks, two teams will compete for the Super Bowl. The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. These teams have been working and will be working hard to win the game; to win the trophy, the ring, and some big money.
Can both teams win? No. One team will win and one team will lose. The margin of victory may be one point or many. But the fact remains both teams cannot be victorious.
When we compete in life, we compete with passion, because it is important. Likewise, when a horse wins the Kentucky Derby, when a runner wins a race, when a basketball team wins a game, and when a Pinewood Derby designer designs a car, they do so because they care. If we do not care, why compete? But when we compete, we must also be willing to suffer a loss.
We don’t like suffering. We don’t like to lose. But the possibility of losing and suffering exists every time we compete.
We sacrifice time to prepare, we push through the pain, and we strive to win. But we can’t always win.
This is why we are able to shake hands and high five the winner when we lose because we know they had the same desire to be victorious.
We may leave the area of competition a little bit down, but hopefully a little bit more determined to compete another day with the hope that on that day, we will win. Have a great weekend and when you compete, may the best team always win!
