Thank goodness it's Friday. My hope is you are having a good week. Summer is making its annual appearance this week. We survived all the rain to get to the hot temperatures. Now it's time to start planning on all my lawn mowing. At least this year the riding tractor is back in working shape. Last year was brutal seeing as most of the year was spent push mowing the entire property. There simply has to be a better way to get into shape than laboring behind a mower. Many of our guys now have the fancy tractors that can stop to go in a circle. Last summer it was just me pushing and going into a circle. This should be a much easier year.

Friday is when my work becomes more intense. Tried a new schedule this week to see if it would be better. I started on Monday pulling material together for the following Sunday. Usually it is Wednesday before that seriously happens. My goal was to be fairly finished by the time the sermon outline went to print last night. It looked like it was going to be a nice improvement on my old method. My other aim was to have Friday free for some of the things a minister needs to do. That was possible until this morning. Either I ate something wrong or something ate me. Let's just leave it at that. Now I am feeling more human. We will try this again next week and hope for a much better Friday.

We are talking about passionate living on Sunday. Hopefully we can think through some issues to help us get a handle on that. Passion is a word we toss around a lot. If you glance through a Christian bookstore its a word writers tag on their titles often. What most writers/preachers are referring to is that intense enthusiasm for living. The thesis is often how God gives passion for your life. I cannot disagree with that premise but do find one thing missing. You do remember that the experience of the death of Jesus is referred to as "passion." My thought is sometimes using this word leaves out the warning about potential suffering. Please do not get me wrong. I believe that our Lord was honestly passionate about His life. But fulfilling that purpose required more than just excited intensity. Not to sound casual but on occasion living with passion calls for hanging in there when everyone and everything is tearing at you.

To be passionate about something can lead to suffering or pain. For example, if you are passionate about a sport or sports team you can feel awful when there is a loss. Or, if you are passionate about something that you do then you may feel a void when you cannot be involved in that. Yes, even in romance there is suffering involved in passion. We hear that absence makes the heart grow fonder. That may be true but it also makes the heart hurt. Does this mean we should avoid this approach? As the apostle Paul might say, God forbid! May it never be this way! I like one quote that I found this week. The writer says, "I don't want to just live the length of life but also its width."


We noted that many people think my passion is football. Actually my true passion is baseball. My neighbors would say that my passion also includes mowing the lawn. Perhaps I am guilty as charged. I think it can be hereditary from my father. My hope is that there is still a passion even at my age for life. Let me honest here. Far too much of church work can kill passion in a minister. You can only absorb so many critics, fights, losses and the sort before it has a genuine affect on the heart. Like you, there is a constant need to keep checking up on my passion level. This is where we will go Sunday morning. Let's get there together passionately.

Bro. Trey