Exploring Your Passions

(Note: This is a guest post from a good friend of ours, Michael Panton. Michael is currently working with Chi Alpha in Indonesia. You can follow him on Twitter: @MichaelPanton or on Instagram: @MichaelPanton)

What are you passionate about? What are you most excited about? What gets your heart pounding? What keeps you up at night (in a good way of course!)?

Those questions are some of the most important you will ever face, thus the answers are equally as important and will greatly impact your life. If you cannot identify what you're passionate about, then it's impossible to move forward. You cannot truly know yourself, nor can you truly know God without knowing your passions. The reason for that is simple. Our passions communicate much to us about both ourselves and God, for they are straight from God and do much to communicate His will and call to us. No passion. No plan. No purpose. 

*Pause* I strongly encourage you to take a moment right now to write down some things that you are passionate about. After doing so, spend a few more moments trying to identify possible paths these passions could take you in the future. Lastly, identify ways that you can live out your passions today.

In our life, God gives us many passions. They come in all shapes and sizes, but I believe all can be traced back to God and have a divine purpose. They all communicate something about God's will for our lives. We must simply ask ourselves, "Why has God given me this desire, this passion, and how do I broker it for His glory?" Answering these questions is essential. Following are two moments where I found myself to have received a new passion and how I have and am attempting to navigate them.

Indonesia

March 2014: I found myself and six others from my university (UVA) on a plan to the other side of the plan, Jogjakarta, Indonesia. We went on a week long trip over Spring break with Chi Alpha (college ministry). During that week, God gave me a passion for Indonesia. Following that week, there was much to think through. Was I to return for a full year after my graduation, just as two of my friends were currently doing? If so, returning stood 1.5 years in the future. While I wasn't sure if I was going to return, that part didn't really matter. God gave me a passion for Indonesia now, and it would have been irresponsible to not do anything with it.

So what did I do? I began to study the Indonesian language from the Internet. I downloaded and listened to audio lessons daily. I got a notebook to write down the words I was to learn. While I knew that I wouldn't continue to study that hard up until my return, I needed something to pour my passion into. Language was it. I believe that time of pouring out my passion aided in my hearing from God, and now I write this blog from Indonesia. God is glorified when we actively seek to pour out our passions into something. It gives Him time and room to work. When we simply sit on our passions, often times they will die before God has time to work through them.

Coffee

A common question Indonesians ask is this: "What are you hobbies?" My answer goes as follows (in no particular order): basketball, playing guitar, reading, writing, and coffee. That last one always confuses them, but yes, one of my main hobbies is coffee. Let me explain.

A year or two ago, a good friend of mine (Seth) and I got coffee from Shenandoah Joes (best coffee shop in Charlottesville). This was my first experience in a coffee shop. At that point in time, I was more of a free coffee drinker, meaning if it was free and I was tired, I drank. My first experience went something like this. "I'd like a cup of coffee." "What kind would you like?" "I just want a plain cup of coffee." "Would you like pour over?" "I just want a cup of black coffee." "Okay. Here are our draft coffees for today." At that point, I kind of understood and chose my coffee (which happened to be from Mandheling, Sumatra in Indonesia!). That day, Seth began to teach me about coffee (and life. True discipleship by coffee). What was so weird is that I was super excited about it, and I wasn't even a coffee drinker yet!

Later on, Lawrencia (my fiancee) and I made it our weekly date to go to Shenandoah Joes (and sometimes other coffee shops). All the while, Seth continued to teach me the in's and out's of coffee, but up until recently, coffee was simply a pleasure, not yet a passion. There was no greater purpose.

Fast forward one year to present day. About one month ago, God planted the idea of one day opening a coffee shop, possibly in Indonesia, to both Lawrencia and I, independently and at the same time. This new perspective on coffee excited me and grew my pleasure into a passion, but what am I to do with such a passion? Just sit, drink, and enjoy coffee all day long? No of course not! Instead I have begun to pour out this passion into learning more about coffee. I began to read all about the methods of brewing. I found a comprehensive (and free!) 800 page ebook written in 1922 and have began to read it. How do I know coffee is more than just a pleasure? To me it's obvious by the fact that I enjoy reading about the history of coffee around the world. That would not have been enjoyable when coffee was just a pleasure. In that way, acting on a passion is the best way to discern whether it's truly a passion or not. Fun fact for those of you who defile the black juice with milk and sugar: in England, people originally thought adding milk to coffee increased the risk of leprosy. Chew on that one the next time you order a concoction from Starbucks.

Now there's no telling whether or not we will actually open a coffee shop, but that's not really important. That day is far in the future, but the present is here and now. And in the here and now, you better believe I am going to do all I can to enjoy and grow this passion that God has given me today. Let us not hinder the purposes of God, by being lazy with the passions He has given us.

Long story short, the point is this. When God elevates your pleasure to the status of a passion, do something with it! Unless you pour your passion into something, it will perish, but passion with a plan leads to purpose. I think it's safe to say that we all want to know our purpose, right? It all starts with passion.

Identify your passions, find something to pour them into, create a plan, and you just might find your purpose along the way.

Pleasure + Perspective = Passion

Passion + Plan = Purpose