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WEIGH DOWN: SEEING THE PASSION

Now, I am aware that sounds a lot like emotional religion. But reason with me for a minute. There are many people out there who say that God does not want "emotional religion." And there are others who say they are burnt out in life. These people supposedly do not have this kind of emotion to give God, so they could not give it even if they wanted to.

Wrong! God made our hearts, and you do have one. In fact, we all have the same size heart, and we all have one hundred percent of a heart—but some people have given pieces of their heart to other things. These pieces of their heart are so scattered about that they do not have the energy to be passionate about any single thing!

Many people have idols in their lives and are not even aware of what they are giving their devotion and energy to. There is only one way to find out if something is an idol in your life: let it be taken away. Then, if you really mourn for it, you know that your heart has been given over to an idol. For example, if God took away your food, how would you react? It could be that you have the same diagnosis as these people that Paul wrote about in Philippians 3:18,19: "For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things."

There is nothing wrong with any of these things listed below—it is your heart. God weighs the motives of the heart. If you worship something else, you will feel drained, lethargic, worn-out, and emotionless. You will not have energy to love your spouse, children, or friends. You will feel empty because you never get what you are after. God will not let your false god give you what you are looking for. None of them will fill you up.

However, if you throw yourself into worshipping God, then He will guide you to do things. This will not be draining, but rewarding. The externals may look the same, but the product and the fruit produced by your activities will be very different: one you directed, one He directed. Your energy level will rise. Your joy will be great!

People have put their hearts into football and basketball, computers and cars, clothes and social climbing, chocolate and desserts, children and careers. Name it, and it can be an idol.

You may still argue that you do not feel all that emotional toward anything, but think with me again. If I were to lock you up in a room that had no refrigerator or pantry in it, you might start off asking politely for some food. A while later, you would ask a little more forcefully. As time goes on, you might resort to begging and bribing. Eventually you would be threatening, yelling and screaming at me to let you out or to bring some food in. Some people might even kill for food. Don't tell me you haven't broken in a buffet line or jumped out of the car to get ahead of the next group of people going into the same restaurant.

So, you tell me: is that kind of person emotional about their food? Is that passion or what? I have known of grown men who stole money from their children's piggy banks in order to sneak away and feed their own obsessive greed for food. We may have chosen to devote our heart to food. Put another way, we have a "crush" on food; food is our stronghold. We have given our heart to food.

I have sat in church on a Sunday evening and watched people listlessly drag themselves through the motions of their worship. These are the same people who will put on one blue shoe and one white one, wave a blue and white pom-pom, and apply blue and white paint on their faces to root for their favorite college teams. They jump up after the worship service (sad name for what took place) and rush to basketball games. They may know the name of every player and every statistic, and once at the game, they scream, yell, and jump up and down for the players. But can these same people tell you much about the heavenly team or any of its star players—Jesus, Abraham, and David? So we do have a heart, and we do know how to worship something ... it may just be misplaced.

If you have a crush on God and think it may go away and be replaced by a "more mature," emotionless love, think again. Your love for food grows more and more. Statistics show us that people in developed countries are getting larger and larger and more and more passionate for their food. Likewise, my love for God has grown more and more. I can't get Him out of my heart and mind. It is passion, and that is how God wants it. It is either growing for one and departing from the other, or vice versa. "No one can serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24). Why? Because you only have one heart. It is made to be devoted. It will not be devoted to two things. It cannot be. It is not possible.

So how do you transfer your passion?

There are two things you need to know to help with this realignment. Number one is to open your eyes to what a life-sucking leech the god of food is and what a life-replenisher is the one true God. Number two, practically speaking, is a crash course on "how to fall in love" with God.

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