Reconnecting For Lent — Passion (Day 41)

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blogging101, Carl Jung, Creative Writing, Faith and Writing, Journaling, Lent 2016, Quotes, Reflections, Writing 101, Writing Prompts

Lent Photo-A-Day (February 10 – March 27, 2016)

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Day 41 — Passion

Passion is what happens when interest, creativity, and zeal mixed together combust.

 

I think that formula is the same for all of us. To me, when the Bible says man was made in God’s image, THAT is exactly the process it’s speaking about. Within that creativity lies all the emotions known to man. We have the unique ability to feel passion and to act on it — and not always for the good, I might add.

The Holocaust is a perfect example of what happens when passion is used in the wrong way. We all have the spark of the divine within us, but what we choose to do with it is still our choice. Perhaps that’s why it becomes so important for us to “find our passion,” so that it will be harnessed to create, not destroy.

I know I’ve felt passion. I know how all-consuming it can be. When I would throw myself into developing the materials for our women’s retreat every year, I would be consumed by the need to create. Once I’d begun it was hard to stop. Drollery will attest to that. He HATED that process. He’d even have to interrupt me and remind me to eat. (Though I suspect his agitation was more with the fact that I’d forget to put dinner on than eat! 😀 ) So why was it so hard to stop what I was doing? Because it was really “playing” for me. At it’s core I believe that’s what creativity is all about — playing.

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung said:

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

It’s hard to understand why the church has always referred to the week before Easter as Passion Week. If Jesus knew when he went to Jerusalem that last time (and he was warned by friends not to go) that he was going to his death, what the heck does that have to do with Passion? I reckon his Passion was about making sure that all of mankind, whom he loved very much, would have the opportunity to be made whole, to feel the Creator’s love. He was just plain PASSIONATE about it, no matter what the cost to himself. So while he was very much aware of what waited in Jerusalem, his PASSION, his love for mankind, drove him on.

I think I can lose myself in those moments of passion, and I think that’s exactly what Jesus did. But it was in losing himself that he found himself, his purpose. I believe it’s the same way for us. It’s in losing ourselves in our passions that we find ourselves. Jung also said:

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside awakes.

And what happens when we meet this Jesus face-to-face?
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The meeting of two personalities is like
the contact of two chemical substances:
if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
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Carl Jung

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Picture Credit: www.forbes.com