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Passion

A few days ago a group of people from our church made a trip to Charlotte to volunteer at the shoebox processing center for OperationChristmas Child. Every day the center preps over 100,000 boxes for shipments around the world to children just in time for Christmas. People who volunteer at this site are passionate! One of our newest church members was on the trip, and she told me on the way back that we needed to double our goal for shoeboxes next year. And, we should get started on next year’s shoeboxes right away.

I like passionate people. One of my favorite aspects of being a pastor is regularly working alongside of people who are passionate about what they do. Passionate people are driven by causes greater than themselves. Passionate people change the world. We have people at Oakland who work year round for wonderful causes that make a difference in eternity.

But, passionate people don’t always play well with others. Sometimes passionate people can’t understand why everyone doesn’t share their passion. Why doesn’t everyone in the church get involved in my cause? Don’t they understand how important this issue is?

I am a passionate person. I am passionate about baseball, football, running, burritos, reading, politics, philosophy, leadership journals, technology, hiking, missions, naked juice, comic strips in the Sunday paper, etc. But, I have little to no passion for lacrosse, stamp collecting, scrapbooking, Tupperware parties, root canals, cabbage, or country music.

We are all wired differently. We are all unique by design. God gives us all great passions for His unique purposes. We will naturally gravitate toward people who share our passions, and we will all make our own impression on the world. It makes the journey so much more fun.

14Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?” 1 Corinthians 12:14-17 (NLT)

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