Passion or Passivity?

#Fenelon #100DaysintheSecretPlace #passion #OolaFaith #OolaCreative

"You cannot give place to the world, or your passions or your laziness. Words are not enough...It takes strength and courage and violence. You must violently resist the tides of the world. Violently give up all that holds you back from God...This violence is what I pray you will come to know, for how else will you know anything of the life of Jesus?" Fenelon

Does a river violently run down a mountain side? Or is it passive and gravity the source of motion? Does moss forcefully hold onto the rock? Or does the water, running over it, secures its place?

It's hard to tell, and easy to argue all sides. So it is with our observation of how others deal with pressure, loss, grief and life in general.

But what of ourselves? Am I passionate or passive? Both, and both are required to follow Jesus. I just get them mixed up sometimes.

Jesus is a paradox. Silent before Pilate. Raging insults at the Pharisees. Gentle with children. Violently swinging a whip around at moneychangers. Passive and passionate.

I am instructed to wait, listen, sit, hide, turn the other cheek. Be passive.

I am told to pursue godliness, push against the tide, defend the defenceless. Be passionately active.

I am both the river and the moss. A paradox.

I've found, in my experience, passivity, or inaction, is required for God to do the work in my heart.

He is the potter, I am the clay. But action, or passion, is necessary when helping others.

Defend, feed, visit, give water.

Too often I get them mixed up. I rant and rage at the heavens when things are pressing on me. I walk by the homeless, diverting my eyes.

As always, I desire to change. I will choose to passively let God do what only He can do on my inward life. And I will choose to take up the cross and follow Jesus into the fray of broken, hurting, marginalized humanity, and make a difference.