Vision - What Gets You Fired Up?

This is the fourth post in a series on personal vision.  

To read the previous posts in this series, 

check out "Vision" in the topics over to the left.

What am I passionate about? 

Did you ever have a really hard time answering a question?  It seems like you should be able to do it.  It seems like you should be able to find an answer.  That's me today - and for a few days now.  I'm struggling with this question. 

I don't think I'm a very passionate person. I don't get "fired up" about much.  I suppose this is a problem.   There's not very much that would make me fight.  There's a mama bear in me so there's something about my children that would make me protect, but I also entrust them to God's care.  So I still really have a hard time answering this question.  This tells you something about me.  I probably have a difficult time uncovering desire.  Disappointment, or more accurately the fear of disappointment, keeps me from passionate pursuits and tempers my enthusiasm.  This started at a early age.  I might want to do something and needed to ask my folks about it, but my parents didn't get a say because I answered "no" for them before they got to ever hear the question.  I still do this. 

One of my "gifts" is to see what is missing about a situation and why it might not work.  This helps things get done and done better if the gift is used in community with others who need a little reality to help them actually accomplish dreams.  However, it is a serious drain and passion-killer when used alone to talk yourself out of almost any idea.  For me, it takes a lot of bravery to face the thoughts that come so naturally about why something might not work.  It takes courage just to say that it actually might work.  This blog might encourage someone; I might be able to create art; I might...  It's why I am writing, you know - to practice being brave in the hope that someone else might be brave too and live the full life that Jesus wants for each of us.

I'm more easily able to answer the question - "What are the guts of what you are about?" - because it has to do with a sense of knowing inside and emerges in our lives whether we give it permission or not.  These gut level things also do actually get passion involved with them as well.  Sometimes the question has to change if we want to get at the answer.  So if one question is hard, answer another one and maybe that will answer both. 

Ponder a little while... it's good for you... even if you don't come to the answers you thought you would... be brave with me...