How Do You Think?

I’ve been hearing the phrase “finding your passion” quite a bit in the past few weeks. The phrase seems to be everywhere, and everyone I know seems to be talking about it. I recently had a conversation with a local mental health professional about finding your passion, and his perspective was one of the most interesting that I’ve heard. He told me, “Your passion doesn’t drive WHAT you think, it drives HOW you think. For example, I’m a psychologist, I think about emotions, they get me excited, they keep me up all night, emotions come to me, then I fill in the blanks. That’s how you know what your passion is. It drives how you think. It’s how God speaks to you.”

I consider myself to be, among other things, a lyricist. I think in concepts. The concept (message/moral/story) comes to me; then I fill in the blanks. Here’s one I’m currently working with: This past weekend, after singing at church, I sat in my pew feeling *ahem* pretty good about my singing abilities, until during the closing song, when I heard an extremely loud voice behind me singing confidently out of tune.

Passion in Praise

I recognized it as the voice of a 12-year-old girl with severe cognitive impairments that also attends my church along with her parents. Her voice was so loud that it deafened all of the voices around us. I quickly let my hair fall to cover my face and the tears streaming down my cheeks. At that moment, all I could think about was God smiling and dancing and singing along to the passion in this girl’s praise. I thought of the comparatively filthy rags I had offered just a few moments ago. But mostly, I thought, “This needs to be a song.”

So, what drives how you think? Do you think in riffs, photographs, equations, or diagrams? I think my friend is right: This is how God speaks to us. Are you listening?

“Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David” (Isaiah 55:3, NLT).

If you liked this, you may also enjoy Our Identity | What Were You Born to Do? 

Jael Amador writes from New York, New York.

© 2002 - 2024, AnswersForMe.org. All rights reserved. Click here for content usage information.