Over the weekend, my boys and I watched the new Mufasa movie. One scene stirred passion within my heart which resulted in me choking back tears. Toward the end of the movie when Mufasa made it to Milele, he stands on top of a cliff and with a great zeal, pleads to all the other animals to stand with him as he fights against evil.
More often than not, moments of great passion and courage move me to tears. I think the reason these moments move me in such a way is because they are contrary to my nature. By nature, I am a passive person. I can be very go-with-the flow, kumbaya, why can’t we all just get along.
By nature, I avoid conflict and confrontation like they’re blood-thirsty predators trying to eat me. That’s changed quite a bit over the last few years. Between Jesus and my wife, I had no choice but to start catching life and moments by the jaws and rip them open like Kong.
Another reason why these moments of passion and courage affect me is because true passion and true courage are byproducts of true hope. And as I have mentioned before, hope was a missing key in my life for a long while.
For us to become passionate and courageous enough to take a stand, to call people to action, to make change, to fight injustice, to (fill in the blank) we must first have hope. A true hope rooted in Jesus. A hope that knows Jesus is the answer to whatever the need or cause may be. A hope that is unquenchable no matter how dire things may seem.
This leads to a two-part question. What is that thing within us that we are most passionate about? That thing that we desire most to see happen.
And secondly, if we don’t have that great desire or dream, where is the hope and how can we stir it up?
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