Death, Life and Passion

There is nothing quite like writing. There is nothing for me in the entire world that feels as meaningful as moving a pen across a page and having an idea spring to life. The whole process screams of beauty and creation and "other-ness," writing something that is incredibly private and deep between you and God.

Writing has fast become a lost art in our culture.
Our culture values speed and quickness in communication rather than slow and thoughtful expression.
Letter-writing has almost vanished, and with it, truly cherishing another individual has almost vanished as well. To write a letter to another person means that we care enough about them to spend time forming and creating complex thoughts and words in order to communicate some truth that God can then use to shape and mold their lives and help them grow more and more into the image of Christ.

In addition, the time it takes to write out your thoughts leads to intense thinking about different ideas. Often, it is only through this "intellectual" or "exploratory" writing that we can ever discover anything. It is this type of writing that helps us create and form new ideas in our minds, bring and draw different ideas together and cement truth into our brains that can be slow to learn.

What I will now attempt is some "exploratory" writing on the subject of: death, life and passion. These are three thoughts that have consumed my mind for many weeks.

The thought in my head consumes many of my thoughts. The idea slowly forming, and becoming clearer with every passing moment. Is this thought really true? Is it something that could truly be the foundation?

Ever since the beginning of the summer, I have been thinking and praying about these three things:
1 - Dying to self
2 - God has given us ALL things pertaining to LIFE
3 - Necessary passion

Is it possible that all three of these things are somehow connected?

Ok, let's back up. To begin with, I started by thinking of these three things as completely disconnected ideas. This should not be a surprise. For our entire education, we have been trained to compartmentalize everything. We go to a History class and learn about history, and then when we walk out of the classroom our minds cease thinking of history. We walk to the next class, Science for example, and instead of integrating History and Science, we think only of Science. This may or may not be acceptable or proper in academia, and I will not argue for or against it. However; could this compartmentalization of things be a major detriment to us spiritually?
I believe that it is.
When we try to teach something such as prayer, it is vital that we do not separate this from other core teachings of the Scriptures such as: the Holiness of God and the reality of sin and the Truth of Jesus.
In order to present a complete teaching of prayer then, we must fully integrate the concept of prayer with the other major ideas presented in Scripture.

Because this is true, it is also vital that anything that God is teaching us cannot be separated from the core ideas of the Bible: namely, Christ and Him crucified, and the glory of God, etc.

When we bring all of this back to the idea of death, life and passion, what do we find?
We find that neither death, nor life, nor passion can be separated from each other. In addition, each cannot possibly be disconnected from the Truth that we find in the person of Jesus Christ.

The idea of dying to self screams of a total surrender of personal goals and wants. It is a submission to the Savior, a complete emptying of self so that the love of Christ can flow through us and into the lives of others. It is only by ourselves dying that we can truly show others real love, and this is the love that Christ has called us to show.

How is this connected to life? Well, it turns out that it is fairly simple. Jesus says that He has given us all things for life. What does this mean? How does this look? Simple, life equals death. Did you catch that? Life equals death.
Real life must be predicated by self-death.
Jesus sums it up when He says that any man that wants to be His disciple must die to himself, take up his cross and follow Jesus.
It is only when we finally die completely to our SELF that we truly find LIFE.
When we die to ourselves we may "lose" by the world's standards, but we find ultimate satisfaction in Christ. We find real joy and we find real life and we live by the Spirit.

How does this tie in with passion?
I have known for a long time that we each need a certain amount of passion in our lives. We can call this "Necessary Passion."
The lives that God has given us are too short to be wasted in fear and doubt and "small" living. God wants us to go all out, to live our lives focused on Him and to live lives that are bent hard to do His will.
Sometimes I ask, where has all the passion gone?
Perhaps the answer is simple.
Perhaps the reason that Christians are lacking in the passion category is simply because they have forgotten to die to themselves. If we never die to ourselves, we can never truly live or experience life, and if we can never experience that because of our pride, how can we ever hope to live with the passion God intends?



There is a song by Tenth Avenue North called: Empty My Hands

It is a song that screams death to me. Death literally to me, and all of my dreams that I have set up. Tonight, I'm willing to give up all of my dreams, all the "big" things I want to do. If Jesus asks for my dreams, I will gladly die to them so that I can truly LIVE.
When I let these dreams die, I will find that the letting go of these dreams makes me COME ALIVE. It all makes sense. The idea is so beautifully brought together.

Thank YOU JESUS for the gift and writing and the intellect that You have given us to think and reason.
Help us to put all of these ideas together so that we can live the way You intend for us to live and so we can show others Your beautiful love.





Empty My Hands - Tenth Avenue North
I've got voices in my head and they are so strong
And I'm getting sick of this, oh Lord, how long
Will I be haunted by the fear that I believe
My hands like locks on cages
Of these dreams I can't set free

But if I let these dreams die
If I lay down all my wounded pride
If I let these dreams die
Will I find that letting go lets me come alive

So empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
Oh empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
With You, with You Lord

These voices in speak instead and what's right is wrong
And I'm giving into them, please Lord, how long
Will I be held captive by the lies that I believe
My heart's in constant chaos and it keeps me so deceived

But if I let these dreams die
If I could just lay down my dark desire
If I let these dreams die
Will I find you brought me back to life


So empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
Oh Lord, empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You

Cause my mind is like a building burning down
I need Your grace to keep me, keep me from the ground
And my heart is just a prisoner of war
A slave to what it wants and to what I'm fighting for

So won't you empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
Oh empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with You
I need you now Lord