An ounce of passion.

So I think I have centralized my thoughts enough to write about them, so here we are.

And it all begins with a John Piper quote I heard. Or a couple of John Piper quotes that I heard, actually.

"A great hindrance to our ministry is the gulf between our Biblical understanding and the corresponding passions of our hearts. The glorious and horrible truths which thunder through the Bible cause only a faint echo of fear and ecstasy in our hearts. We take a megaton of truth upon our lips and speak it with an ounce of passion."

Yes. I have been talking to people all weekend about this thought because it has begun to plague me. We really do have a megaton of truth in our hearts. It's like that C.S. Lewis quote: "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important". I am convicted about how locked up I keep the truth that I have in my heart. I will let it out, but only when people want it. I guess we have become so cautious about not "shoving our beliefs down the throats of others"... but by doing that, are we not draining power from the gospel? If the basis of Christianity is true, and Jesus truly died on a cross 2000 years ago so that His blood would cover our sin that we may be given the grace to spend eternity with Him and escape the flames of hell, then how can we view that as moderately important?! If that is true (which I wholly believe it is), then that is the most important thing that anyone could ever discover in their lives. And how do I sit with that truth locked up in my heart like an atomic bomb that brings freedom and change and new hope and restoration and new faith and new love and so much more, and I speak it with an ounce of passion. Like I have lost confidence in its power. It is selfish of me to not share what I know with the people I encounter. I am not saying that it always has to be done with words, but I believe that I should always be a light in the darkness. I don't want to extinguish my flame because others don't know how to deal with fire. I want to show them the beauty of the light and the warmth. And the consuming power.

This all started Friday night and where I was and who I was with. And I am not going to go into it, but I truly spent time with people that had not experienced Truth. And I just don't think that I spoke of it in the intense way that I truly believe in it. Is it lack of courage? Is it pride? I'm not sure.... But perhaps, I let some people remain in the dark where they are comfortable when I could have lit the flame and let it change their life as they know it. Of course, I cannot do anything. Silly human...


"When the heart no longer feels the truth of hell, the gospel passes from good news to just news. The intensity of joy is blunted and the heart-spring of love is dried up." - John Piper