Obligation Versus Passion … Who Wins? …Hello Hump Day readers. A good friend sent me a book she thought I’d like and I did! She had found it in her mother’s boxes of books. After her mom passed away, she stashed the boxes in her basement. She sent me a few of them thinking I might enjoy them or use some of the ideas for my writing and teaching. I’ve had the books for over a year so I decided it was time to look at them and what did I find – a treasure-trove!

The one book about ‘obligation’ kept coming back to me, so I opened it and it was not only interesting, it was also very deep. The writer was a retired professor where he taught for over 35 years as a scholar of divinity in Duke University. Most folks don’t know that the background of Duke was founded with Methodist and Quaker roots. Their motto Eruditio et Religio means “Knowledge and Faith.” The professor’s book shared about those roots and the powerful obligations that he and others had at the university.

Some of the pages were very deep and psychological so I read some of the pages more than 3 to 4 times. Guess what I learned? “How to think about the things you feel obligated to do versus the things you’re passionate about.” Honestly, it was something I never thought much about, but the more I read the more I realized that ‘obligations’ are not only powerful in our lives, but a wonderful gift from God. Like most of us, few enjoy their obligations and wish they could off-load it to someone else. Growing up in a resort, we had all kinds of obligations, cooking, making beds and cleaning cabins, cleaning boats, etc. But there were some obligations we loved, such as having fun with the people and especially the good-looking boys in those families! We also loved to take folks out on the lake for fishing, or our big-boat for water-skiing. Those things may not really be in the category of an ‘obligation’ but we thought it was great.

When something’s an obligation to you, you’ll do it but it’s not what you like very much. But, when it’s a passion you love—then you can’t wait to do what you’re doing! Interestingly, the downside of the many passions we all love usually have nothing to do with our faith in God. We don’t want to be people who go through those religious motions without having a heart connection with the Lord. It’s a lot more than showing up, checking all the right boxes, or fulfilling some obligation which we really don’t want to do. And that is when we miss the joy of relationships with others and especially the God who loves us not just here and there, but every single day.

In Revelation 2:1-5 [TPT] we find sadness when John said: “Write the following to the messenger of the congregation in Ephesus. For these are the words of the one who holds the seven stars firmly in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know all that you’ve done for me—you have worked hard and persevered. I know that you don’t tolerate evil. You have tested those who claimed to be apostles and proved they are not, for they were imposters. I also know how you have bravely endured trials and persecutions because of my name, yet you have not become discouraged. But I have this against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning. Think about how far you have fallen! Repent and do the works of love you did at first. I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place of influence if you do not repent.”

Let’s not be like the church in Revelation where they were still working, still serving and maintaining—but their passion had been replaced by ‘obligation’. Instead, let’s embrace the power of the Holy Spirit who will once again reignite our passion and give us the joy of those obligations we don’t like. Let’s return to our first love—Jesus! He will fuel our passion and our obligations in everything we do! AMEN.