Last week I met a UAB student who was on campus at Samford.  After our initial shock of seeing each other at a place we don’t normally expect to see each other, I asked him how he was doing.  It had been some time since I’d seen him and he replied that he was great because ever since he was saved he has some security in life.  While I’m not sure I would describe my faith as one that brings security, I admire his passion as much as I understand a need we all have to feel secure and at peace.

In this week’s parables, we Jesus tell two stories about people who are so passionate that they drop everything, leave what they’re doing, to go in search of something they realize they lost.  Their life is incomplete until they find it, and they go to great lengths to search for whatever it is: a sheep and a coin.  Finding this lost item, restoring to wholeness, is so important to them you can describe it as a passionate search.

What are you passionate about?  What’s missing in your life right now, and are you searching for it?  A better way to put might be, what drives you, keeps you going, and compels you to invest yourself for the pursuit of something which challenges you, yet also brings you joy in the pursuit of a goal?

Passion is an important thing to have in life; we’re at our best when we can dedicate ourselves to some goal.  May this week provide an opportunity for you to find your passion, to invest yourself to search for wholeness that can only come when we’re willing to acknowledge something we’ve lost or something we need to find. Community, life with others, is all about putting us together so that we all find something we lack in the presence of one another.

–Thomas