Get some Passion

Ok, so the last few days I've watched this video with Gary Vaynerchuck.  I had never heard of him before...but he blew me away!  The video is about 15 minutes, but once you start watching you can't stop!  He talks about two things in this video, Patience and Passion.  This is one extremely passionate man! He goes on to say that if you are 1% unhappy, it's time to get out and do something you are passionate about.  Even if that something makes less money, if you are going to be happier then it's worth it to get out.

This concept of happiness while at work has always been something big for me.  I've talked to lots of people that hate their jobs, and simply bitch about them nonstop.  I have always said to them, if your not happy with what you are doing, find something else!  Find what your passion is and go for it!  Another thing Gary addresses is a question from someone who asks, "What about getting enough money to do something?"  Gary just kind of laughs and tells the guy that even if your working 9 to 5, you come home spend some time with the family, kiss the dog, and work from 7pm-2am.  Doesn't this make sense?  If you are passionate about something wouldn't you just work on it all the time?  Put effort into it? Have a drive to succeed in it?  That's what I think.  

Another thing that I thought of while I watched this video was that we need more Christians like this.  When did we lose our passion for Christ?  Now we wuss around the topic of God and religion, we sidestep those conversations, we say do whatever you want!  I know where I'm going!  When did we become such wimps? And if your thinking right now, "I can't believe he's saying this about Christians!" Then get your head out of the sand and look around you.  I'm not proud to say, but I do it sometimes, and I'll admit sometimes I need to get some balls and address some of these things head on.  But there are many people that do this, and it shows a lack of passion, a lack of love, a lack of trust in God.  We lack a holy rage to being outspoken towards God. Think about it.  And while your thinking, read this qoute by a dude named Kaj Munk...oh and watch the video!
"What is, therefore, the task of the preacher (or the church) today?  Shall I answer: "Faith, hope and love?" That sounds beautiful.  But I would say - Courage.  No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth.  Our task today is recklessness.  For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature, we lack a holy rage."
-Kaj Munk

For Communities' Sake!

Last week I went to a Trauma conference...I know what your thinking..boring right? But actually it was quite interesting! However, that wasn't the most exciting thing that was happening there. When I first walked into the large room I found that I was not sitting with any co-workers at all...which at first I was disappointed in...I was, instead, sitting with a group of complete strangers. The cool part about it, however, was that there were people there from all different positions within the social service field. So we were able to make connections with different agencies/people in our area (geographically) which was pretty awesome. The even better part was that all these people were at this conference to serve the clientele that they support/serve. It was one giant community coming together to show support for the work that others did and learn how they can do the work that they do better!

While I was there I began thinking that we don't often do this within the church community as often as we should. Sometimes it feels that we're "competing for souls" within our communities. Should it really be this way? Obviously there are some communities that are already doing this sometimes, but not near enough of our communities are doing this. I think that too many churches are still stuck up and don't want to deal with other denominations, for whatever reason, which is depressing and truly sad. People are scared to commit to something as large and life-changing like this...why? Why are we afraid to be apart of a movement that can forever change people's lives?

I love community, and I feel that I'm lacking in it right now, mainly because I'm not actively involved in one church, however there are still other communities that I am involved in, and they truly bless my life and make it worthwhile. To be able to serve others and be served by others, truly nothing compares to the feeling! So why are we afraid to commit to being active within these communities? We say that we're busy as we flip on the TV, we make up various excuses (and we could all name 50) not to be involved in something that could potentially change our lives and the lives of people around us. I think one of the reasons is that people will truly to get to know aspects of our lives that we wish to hide from the people around us. We are frightened of showing our weaknesses and having people expose us for our faults. But how else are we supposed to grow? So get involved, be active, get off the couch, be outspoken, dare to be wrong, dare to be vulnerable!