Passion and Growth

This has been a great quarter for me at the UW thus far. I have finally made it to the point where there are no more literature or geography-crap classes I have to take (sorry to you who like that stuff). From here on out, there is only glorious programming and lots of it (and plenty of math). My grades are up; I’m content and joyful day in and day out. I have a passion for the work that I am doing, and it permeates every moment.

It took me a while to get here. Turning back the pages to my freshman year of college, I had two men I looked up to: Jim and Jerry. Jerry was a psychology professor and Jim is a self-made businessman who sells model trains. Jerry was a wise and experienced 63 year-old man, and Jim middle-aged. To each, at some point during my time with them, I asked the same question: Should I make a career of a beloved hobby?

At the time I was seriously considering pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Education, whittling away at perfecting my skills working with children. It was a good enough field, and I chose it only because I didn't have a good reason not to. But by night I would waste hours making electrical components into flashing lights and other fun little circuits just for fun, or play around with various Linux distros on my laptop.

Jerry, the professor, had the college for 8 years, 15 years in clinical psychology, and 20 years as a scuba instructor and small business owner. He swore up and down that pursuing his hobby of diving as a career was a mistake that cost him decades.

Jim on the other hand, had worked quite happily for 30 years in his hobby of model trains. He worked in a retail shop during the day and went home to play for many hours more each day.

I held both men to be wise and experienced, but I was always perplexed how they could have such different views on a pivotal question. Looking back now, I can see that Jim must have been far more satisfied on his straight forward path in life, while Jerry veered dramatically every decade or two. Jim’s satisfaction stemmed from an underlying passion that showed whenever you mentioned trains to him.


In my mind, passion is the sum of two personal truths. Your why, and your energy.

Why: This is the reason for getting out of the bed in the morning. What makes you tick. For me, I love programming and being a student at UW because it gives me an intellectual challenge of abstract problem solving, and that I get to make things in the virtual world. It is my ultimate display of creativity to know that I have solved a problem and in doing so, I have built an invisible world that slaves away to complete the task I named for it.

Energy: This is simply choosing to do something with your why. Choosing to get out of bed, choosing to tick, and having the time and ability to do so.

When I think of passion in the church, the first people that come to mind are the little old ladies who have served on the altar guild or prayer ministry since before I was a thought. They know what they love to do, they do it well, and I know they will never do anything else.

Thinking about these old ladies, I can plainly see that they love what they do because they have a reason for doing it, and are not stretched beyond their means to do so.

Not every person in ministry in the church has this same passion though. There are several people I can think of who have energy, but no reason for doing what they do. This leads mostly to doing more things, which in turn means burning out that energy. Not knowing why you do something gives no barrier to saying yes to the next need that arises within the church walls, because you can’t say no.

After the same fashion, knowing your reason for doing something, but not having the energy or time to act on it leads to some amount of resentment and possibly getting confused about why you love what you do.

The matter of passion must be solved long before we, as a church, can hope to grow. Growing is no easy task and it will not happen overnight. But when it does, it will happen because people know who they are, and who we are as a Body of Christ. That we know exactly why we exist as an Episcopalian and Christian church, and we readily have the energy (which is not measured in money or membership) to live out our calling.


Robert