Thoughtful Thursday – Passion

Every so often I come across a word the really intrigues me and I have to find it’s meaning and what it really means to me and others, that word right now is “passion.”

A couple months ago I was asked by someone I was getting to know, if I thought of myself as a passionate person. I replied, “Yeah I think so.” But afterwards I was thinking about it and wondering what “passion” meant to me. I thought I knew what the meaning was, but decided to look it up in the dictionary (always a good idea if you want to know what something means) and I got many different things.

Intense emotions such as love, joy, hatred or anger,
Strong sexual desires,
Outburst of emotions such as rage, hatred or jealousy,
Intense enthusiasm for something,
Object of someone’s intense interest.

I have also been asking my friends what passion means to them and I got many of the answers above. Most associated passion with love or being in love. This happens also in different languages. In Portuguese when your “in love” with some one the word used is "apaixonado" which literally means "full of passion.”

But the most interesting thing about this word for me is what it really means, its original meaning, which is still used in its context today as well. Passion originally meant the suffering of Jesus from the last super up through the crucifixion, thus the naming of Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion.

We all know why Jesus suffered so much, because of His intense love for us and his desire to break Satan’s hold over us and give us eternal life with Him in Heaven. An so I think that’s how passion started to mean other things associated with intense feelings and emotions.

But to really experience passion to it’s full, there would need to be the element of love, desire, intensity and enthusiasm, along side the feelings of suffering. Is it really suffering though if we do it in Christ’s name? Is that why love so often hurts? I think its part of it.

So to answer my friends question more thoroughly, as to if I am a passionate person. Yes! – I do believe I am. I have had a life filled with love, desires, enthusiasm and intensity…along with the times of loss, suffering and disappointments. All of these make up my life which I live with PASSION!