September 19: Of passion

Isaiah 30:12-33:9

Galatians 5:1-12

Psalm 63:1-11

Proverbs 23:22

When I first read today's NT verses - specifically Galatians 5:12 (As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!) and realized Paul was suggesting that those creating ceremonial impediments to a relationship with God take a sharp blade and do themselves a mischief, I thought "Whoa!  Paul has a temper!"  Today I read it differently, though was no less taken aback: "Whoa, Paul has a passion!"  

My older son has a passion - a good one.  He swims competitively.  Loves it.  So much so, that on his thirteenth birthday, 5 days after coach told him he could join the high school kids in training, he woke up at 5am (on a Friday - a school day!) so he could hit the pool and train at 5:30.  He swims at 5:30am twice a week these days, and 7 times a week overall.  He enjoys it, yes...but he is driven to do it - he has a passion to swim, and to get better at swimming.  

Paul had a passion too - one I hope my older son, his younger brother, his older sister, their mother and I - and truth be told, everyone - acquires: a passion for relationship with God.  Not a book knowledge of Him, the way one might read a biography of, say McArthur or Patton or Churchill, but a relationship - one built spending time together, as two persons who love each other, who know each other well enough they do not stand on ceremony, they do not take comfort in form and formality.  Paul had a passion for a relationship with Christ based on Christ's unconditional love, not on rites and credentials.  And he wanted that for everyone, and was furious at anyone who got in the way.  

He was like the psalmist in today's reading - "earnestly I seek You, I thirst for You, my whole being longs for You, in a dry and parched land where there is no water."  That isn't just a passion - that's a desperation.  And why not?  This is the God who is "my help...I cling to You; Your right hand upholds me."  This is whom Isaiah will bless Israel with "rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful."  Who makes His people to "live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest."  

It is almost 1:30 in the morning as I write this.  An undisturbed place of rest sure would make me passionate for the One who provides it.  

Father thank You - for Paul and His zeal and His example, and for Your love and providence.  Enkindle in our hearts the same fire that raged in Paul's heart for You; make us desperate for You the way a man, parched and in a dry land thirsts for water.  Amen.