When I look for volunteers or leaders in the church, one of the most important qualities I look for is passion. I want them to be excited and enthusiastic about Jesus, His church, and using their gifts to reach those who don’t know God. Although, lately it seems that these people are getting harder and harder to find, and I think I may know why. Passion literally means to suffer, and no one likes to suffer, including myself.

Rusty Rustenbach, a name that it looks like I made up, said it this way,

“You and I live in an age when only a rare minority of individuals desire to spend their lives in pursuit of objectives which are bigger than they are. In our age, for most people, when they die it will be as though they never lived.” – Giving Yourself Away

I was talking to a young gentleman the other day that has a bright future ahead of him. I asked him how he was spending his free time, his response, “I’m really into leisure time.”

Aren’t we all? Given the choice between suffering and leisure, I believe we all would pick leisure.

Yet, nothing great has ever been accomplished through leisure. It only comes through suffering.

Great musicians suffer through hours of daily practice because of their passion for music. The calluses on a worship leader’s hands can testify to this.

Michael Phelps didn’t become the most decorated Olympian ever without suffering. During the peak of his training, he trained six hours a day, six days a week, and ate a whopping 12,000 calories a day.

God always seems to have a special way to use suffering in people’s lives.

Noah spent 120 years building a boat.

Abraham was told he would be a father of a great nation and spent 25 years waiting for a son.

Joseph was thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, then betrayed and forgotten in a dungeon.

David was anointed king, yet spent years running from Saul.

Daniel was thrown into a den of lions.

Jesus was crucified.

Each suffered greatly, and each experienced greatness.

You can’t have one without the other.

On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your passion level? How do you keep the passion alive? Let us know by leaving a comment below, and make sure to subscribe to the blog to get tips on leadership, church growth, and more delivered to your inbox each week.