May 5 2006 Passion

Friday, May 05, 2006
Passion Current mood: hopeful
Passion

The other day I happened upon the College Bowling Championships on ESPN2. It took me back to my college bowling days.

I have recently lost the desire to bowl. I used to bowl 4 or 5 leagues a week and tournaments on the weekends. I lived and loved to bowl. It was such a part of me. I missed so many things to go to bowling. Bowling was first.

Not anymore. Now I find myself bored and simply not interested in bowling at all. I still like to bowl. In fact, I often dream that I am bowling. I am just bored. I couldnt figure out what changed. I have changed a lot over the past few years. I have grown in so many ways. I thought maybe that is what changed my view towards bowling. I was wrong.

So I was watching the college bowling on ESPN and I was reminiscing. (Anthony thinks I am just weird. He is also bored with bowling.) I watched the girls bowling and they were so intense. Every shot meant something. They were bowling in baker format so one person, one ball could make or break the entire game. I remember how it felt to bowl in these situations. I loved it. All of the team members from both teams were standing in the pit area. Every single one of them was paying attention to every move. I watched as the girls cheered the second the ball was released. They would talk between shots and between games and encourage one another. I remember how important it was to know each others game. It was important to know our strengths and weaknesses. It was important to know how to encourage one another. Every person on the team was important. I saw the passion and unity in these girls. It was beautiful. I always thought that what I liked about college bowling was the after party. A party is only fun when you are with those that you know and love.

I realized that I had lacked the passion and unity in bowling that I had when I bowled with my college friends. I dont know that it is possible to gain that again due to the fact that collegiate bowling is a unique environment. I do know that I can have more passion in other areas of my life.

Passion isnt everything though. I need relationship and unity also.

In the past few years, I have been bowling for myself. I bowled on leagues with teams, but we didnt really care how we did as a team. I found myself trying to achieve my own personal goals. I was bowling for myself and so was everyone else. It was boring. What fun is it to achieve something when you are the only one cheering? I missed the girls cheering me on. And more importantly, I miss cheering them on. It is so fun being a part of something. It is fun reaching for a goal. It is fun being passionate as a team. Then it is fun to celebrate!


Deep inside all of us there is a passion. A passion to see good triumph over evil. A passion to see change. A passion to make some type of difference. A passion to rescue and to be rescued. We cant do it alone. It is so important to have passion in your life. It is also so important to have relationships. Relationship is foundational. We all have the desire to have relationship. MySpace is a testimony of how people crave relationship. Relationship is exactly what evil tries to destroy. Without relationship, a person is isolated, alone and defeated. One person by themselves struggles to bring forth change. Several people uniting and lighting a passionate fire within other promotes and succeeds at change. We need cheerleaders and more importantly we all need to be cheerleaders. A unified, passionate group of people bring forth major changes. There are so many examples in history of passionate groups of people uniting to make change. Our country was founded on a group of passionate people uniting to make a change. We all desire to be a part of a team. Professional sports show how we all want to cheer on our team or ANY team. Cancer walks show how we want to fight for something good. I believe this is something God has embedded in each one of us.

I have lacked passion. I have lacked unity. I have lacked relationship. We often get so burdened in our own hurts and battles that we recluse and hide from each other. I am coming out of hiding. I am coming out from the hurts, the pain, the lies and moving forward to promote change. Look out. J

I am thankful for my friends that I have right now. I feel that we are a team with a common goal. We just want to love and to be loved. I am so thankful for the passion God has given us for people. I am so thankful for passion, love and unity. And I want more



I pray that God will continue to stir passion within me. I pray He will do the same for you. I pray He will continue to build relationships in our lives. I pray for unity. I pray we can set aside differences, weaknesses, and hurts and come together to fight the good fight. We are all in a battle. We need each other. We need to encourage each other. We need to heal each other. We need to LOVE each other. I know amazing things would happen if we would simply love each other in true agape love. I just dont know that I truly understand that love yet. I want to understand. I want to grow and love more.

More.I want MORE!!!

I also have to say that I miss my college friends. We had some good times together. I miss you Carmen, Julie, Sammy. i can't wait to see you again.

Thanks for reading