This week I had the chance to sit shoulder to shoulder with some pretty amazing people from a variety of walks of life. Men and women from around the world who are doing the one thing they are most passionate about. And what made these few days super great was that we share the same passion!

You may not share the same passion as me and that’s perfectly fine. But I wanted to share some thoughts on living out your passion. A few things really jumped out at me this week as these men and women shared their stories. The one overarching thing that really hit me was that when we live out our passion we become passionate and it’s obvious!

Passions excite us. They get us up in the morning. They let us press through some pretty crappy days. They allow us to deal with some harsh comments from critics. When our passion is in the driver seat, there’s very little that will stop us.

I’m going to share my passion with you and then three things I learned from this gathering. Your passion is likely different and again that’s cool! But think about your passion and you can apply these same principles to your life as well.

Know Your Passion

If you don’t know your passion then that is where you have to start. What lights a fire inside you that just can’t be stopped? For me it’s church planting. I am a church planter in my heart. I think about it a lot. It excites me to see people get to understand matters of faith and grow in their relationship with Jesus. What’s your passion?

This week I had a bit of an epiphany. I realized that I kind of lost sight of my passion. I think I took my eyes off of it for a while and being around these men and women, literally from around the world, reignited that fire in my soul.

I want to see the world know Jesus. And I believe that to reach new people you often have to start new things…churches included. Coming out of this conference I regained some clarity on the power of passion. Do you know your passion?

The Stronger The Why The Weaker The Excuse

Know anyone who seems to have an excuse for everything? Yep super annoying! But there are times in our lives when we tend to make up excuses for things we aren’t super committed to pulling off. Not enough time. It’s too hard. I don’t have all the knowledge I need. I need more resources before starting. And the list goes on.

Here’s something I’ve learned. The stronger your reason why, the less power your excuses become. We’ll use a simple image that many have dealt with in life: living a healthier lifestyle. When I was in my 20s I wasn’t the most healthy individual. I tried the occasional diet but it never really stuck. I didn’t workout really at all even though I had a simple weight bench in my basement. I just didn’t have the motivation. I had a million excuses on why I just couldn’t workout today.

Then one day I had some blood work and found out that my cholesterol was more than twice what it should be. Sure my heredity was against me but so was my horrific eating habits. Yeah I was the two pop tarts for breakfast and a 2 liter of pop kind of guy in those days. Needless to say when the doctor told me how bad the cholesterol situation was, my why was elevated to a whole new level. I changed my eating, started walking and ended up dropping my cholesterol to a healthy level and losing 45lbs in the process.

When our why is strong enough, no excuse stands a chance! In my church planter heart, it’s not my desire to start a church that drives me but my understanding that Jesus is the only way. And I don’t want to see anyone not know how much Jesus loves them. No excuse holds water with that why.

Maturity Is Found In Replication

Ok so this one is a bit more specific to my church scenario, but there was a quote from this week that really hit me between the eyes. A church isn’t mature until it plants another church. That means there are a ton of immature churches out there! The one I pastor is among them.

Some might push back a little because they don’t have the same why or passion that I have. That’s ok. But here’s what I can tell you for certain! My why is big enough that even if you don’t agree, it won’t hurt my feelings and you’re not going to change my mind. It doesn’t mean you have to agree.

So there it is passion, know your why, and replication are three key musings going on in this old man’s noggin today. What are you passionate about? And do you know your why? If so let’s move!