Passionate

Well, I do apologize for the lack of blog posts within the last month! It has been a crazy start to the year, even though I am excited for it! I hope this post finds many of you well. This year, in school, I am going to be involved in my Adult 1 clinical and Psychiatric mental health nursing clinical. I refer to the latter as my psych clinical, but don't be fooled, it's not exactly psychology. Anyway, I had that clinical yesterday, and let me tell you, I loved it. The first few weeks I'm going to be working with Alzheimer's clients. I just have to tell you a quick story and then I'll be onto my topic for today. Long story short, I was giving a cup of water to one of the clients and she grabbed onto my hand as I gave her the water and then kissed it! It was the sweetest thing and I didn't know exactly how to react! But it was very sweet and I just smiled and went about my business. But that will most likely stick with me for some time!

Alright, onto today's topic. I was filling out an application the other day and one of the questions was: What are you passionate about? Now, normally, I would give a sigh of frustration. That question used to always be so hard to answer. But, I sat and thought about it and I realized that my definition of what passion is has changed over time. I would have originally said something to the effect of, "Well, I'm passionate about swimming and going to a great college and...etc." It's amazing how God works. Swimming isn't such a huge part of my life in the present. I am going to a great college but the stress of trying to get into one is over. This is what I've realized: being passionate means doing something in the hope of evoking change in something or someone else.

Have you ever thought about it that way? If I say, "I'm passionate about nursing", well, I want to create change in people's health. I want to be an advocate for a healthy lifestyle. I want to be an advocate for taking care of the heart and mind and in turn taking care of the physical body. If I say, "I'm passionate about reading", I want people to love reading as much as I do and learn to appreciate literature. If I say, "I'm passionate about writing", I want to keep that old way of communication alive. And I do! If I say, "I'm passionate about Christ", I want to evoke change with that statement and I want people to share in the same grace and salvation that I do every day.

So, now how would you feel about me saying God is passionate about us? Well, that's weird. How can the God of the universe be passionate about us? I mean, when you think about it, we're pretty pathetic compared to Him. And that's mildly putting it. So, God is passionate about us. Okay, so He is hoping to evoke change in us? No. He IS evoking change. Every day. He gives us passion for Him so we can turn around and invoke that passion in someone else. There is a great quote by Rick Warren and he says "God is love. He didn't need us. But he wanted us. And that is the most amazing thing." It's so true. Let that fact sink in. I mean, think about it. He died for us. He died for His cause. He died to evoke change. He died to instill passion in His believers. Now how does that make you feel? I know it makes me feel like His passion deserves my undivided attention. Food for thought.

"The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."

-Zephaniah 3:17