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Kent Murawski

Reach your potential, make a difference

Purpose ·

Purpose Quest 6: Passion & Purpose

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. (Frederick Buechner)

In my last post, I transitioned from writing about your MACRO or BIG PICTURE purpose to your micro purpose. Your micro purpose is your unique design. Author Rick Warren calls it your S.H.A.P.E.:

S – Spiritual Gifts

H – Heart/ Passions

A – Abilities/Natural Strengths

P – Personality

E – Experiences

S – Spheres of Influence (I’ve added this one to the original acronym)

Today I will cover the “H” or your “Heart and Passions.” Let me say up front, this can be a tricky one depending on your background and upbringing. In certain circles, we are often taught that our desires, feelings, emotions are bad or unimportant. That is sad to me. Your desires often reflect a want or need for something good and right. The problem comes when we pursue a good desire in a harmful way. 

Good desires pursued in a harmful way are damaging. 

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Take food as an example. We can’t live without it, but beyond that, good food can also be a desire. When food is fresh, seasoned right, and cooked properly it can be amazing. We have a favorite seafood restaurant on Cape Cod. The best meal I’ve had so far was sea scallops with red quinoa. The scallops were exquisitely pan-seared, the quinoa was masterfully cooked, and the light lime seasoning was out of this world. My mouth is watering just writing about it! But food can also be abused. The desire for food is good and necessary, but a good desire pursued in a damaging way can lead to problems if we overeat, eat too much unhealthy food, or use food to satisfy our emotional needs. 

Desires are Usually Good

God has lots of desires. He expresses them all throughout the Bible. In fact, the word used in 75% of the cases in the New Testament for “God’s will” can also be translated desire. 

God’s will is God’s desire. 

God doesn’t want to squelch your desires, He wants to fulfill them in a way that brings glory to him, good to others, and meaning and fulfillment for you. God is actually the one who created us with desires and lest you forget, you were also created in his image. And all God’s desires are good.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4 ESV)

This verse is often misunderstood. Fulfilling the desire is his part. Let’s call a fulfilled desire “fruit. Delighting yourself in the Lord is your part; let’s call that the “seed.” You delight (plant the seed), he gives the fruit (a fulfilled desire). It doesn’t mean God will give you whatever you want. God is not a genie. 

It means he will give you the things He wants you to have that he knows will be good for you. He also created you with desires in accordance with your purpose. The closer you get to Him, the more those desires surface. When God is our primary pleasure, then his desires become ours, and the desires He created us for surface and find meaning. That’s what it means to be one with him. 

We also possess certain desires that are innate to being human, like the desire for love, connection, and intimacy (physical and emotional). He wants to fulfill those too in his time and in his way. This is where trust and faith come in. Will you seek to fulfill your desires with him or without him? Will you do it in our own way that could be destructive, or His way that will end in good, both for us and for others?

All Desires are Evil?

I’ve heard people say such things, but don’t believe it for a minute. They even use the bible to justify it. 

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT)

What some people don’t realize is God promised to take out the old heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19). He promised to write his laws on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). Through his Son, Jesus, we become one with him. Old things pass away and all things become new (2 Cor. 5:17). That doesn’t mean we get it perfect all the time, but it does mean we have a new orientation, a new compass, a new North Star so to speak. 

I’ve written more on desires here. 

You Can’t Have What You Don’t Acknowledge

Is it better to deny your desires and bury them or to acknowledge them and talk about them? I believe you can’t have what you don’t acknowledge. Acknowledging a desire takes courage and risk. What if I say it and it never happens? I guess that’s one way to look at it, but here’s another way. What if you acknowledge it, discern where it’s coming from (God, you, or some other source), and decide whether or not you should pursue it and how? If it’s good and right, then by all means you should put your heart and soul into it.

There are times God just gives you your desires because he is a good Father. But more often than not, a desire fulfilled requires a few things:

Desire + Hard Work + God’s help = A Desire Fulfilled

Here’s an example. I had a desire to write a book. My first one took ten years. It was a good desire and one I believed God wanted for me. But he didn’t write the book for me. Simply identifying and stating a desire doesn’t make it happen. Prayer can’t be a substitute for obedience and obedience is never a substitute for prayer. The two work hand in hand. 

Mark Batterson says it this way, “Pray like it depends on God, and work like it depends on you.” 

I’ve heard different iterations of this but here is the gist. God can do anything, but he is unwilling to do some things without you. He’s chosen to partner with us. He’s chosen relationship, and relationship always requires participation. 

This is different from “God helps those who help themselves.” God helped us when we couldn’t help ourselves. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romas 5:8). He doesn’t help those who help themselves; he helps those who depend upon him and put their trust in him.

Feelings and Desires

Desires and feelings often go hand in hand, but like desires, many people don’t trust their feelings. Feelings and desires are indicator lights on the dashboard of your soul. They aren’t always meant to be acted on, but you should pay attention to them. 

You can’t always live by your feelings but you better pay attention to them. 

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Here are some questions to ask yourself when it comes to your passions and desires and how they shape your purpose.

(micro) Purpose Question #6 – Heart/Passions

What am I passionate about and how does it align with my purpose? Here is a simple exercise called Mad, Sad, Glad:

  1. What brings me deep joy and what problem am I trying to solve?
  2. What makes me cry or breaks my heart?
  3. What makes me angry?

Where do your “deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet?” Read Psalm 37:4, Psalm 21:2, Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 13:12 and write down your answers to the Mad, Sad, Glad exercise.

Now write it in a concise statement and add it to questions 1-5. 

Take Action

What is one step you need to take today to pursue your passion? Write it down and act on it within 48 hours. 

If you need to catch up, you read all the posts here: