An Alternate Translation

Top o' the morning to ya.

Last night I found myself clinging to the side of a cliff for dear life. I looked down at the certain death waiting below me and suddenly had an epiphany.
Ok, so it's not that dramatic. I was about 50 feet up the side of a wall in an indoor climbing gym and out of the blue a bolt of inspiration struck. I wasn't even looking down when it hit, I was trying not to think of the pain my harness was going to cause if I jumped for another hold and missed (being short occasionally has certain disadvantages).

What is passion?
Well, since I'm not a biblical scholar or anything (though I did do a word search for "passion" at gospelcom.net, that counts for something, right?) I'm just going to take this idea and run with it.

passion = death

Think about it. I've been told that the old definition of passion is "suffering." Don't really know what the context is, but it does sound heady and theological in titles like "The Passion of the Christ." Not that I'm poking fun at the movie, but when you don't really know anything, everything has a mysterious, deep meaning that only you can understand. (Guess I'm showing my ignorance....)
I think it is safe to say that Jesus was passionate, in all definitions of the word, even though the word search didn't reveal any clues. He suffered and he died, and tells us to be like him, so theoretically we are supposed to be passionate, too.

You know, that just doesn't sound very appetizing right now. "Excuse me, waiter, there's a corpse in my soup, can I have another bowl?" I'm not saying we should all want to be dead. I don't think Jesus was saying that, either. I do think, and the word search agrees, that we should be willing to give our everything for Jesus' sake. All the references I found to passion had to deal with being renewed in our hearts and ways of thinking and not only giving up, but removing the old, sinful ways. ("Why, sir, you are the corpse in your soup. How can I fix that?")

This reminds me of C.S. Lewis's secret of joy, paraphrased. Feel free to correct me if you know otherwise. He always said that joy is longing, it is the terrible ache we feel so deep it is a part of our psyche. I agree. Perhaps that is the feeling we get when we are passionate...a terrible and deep longing for what really truly is fulfilling, or better, or right, or true, or maybe even just nice. I think it can also be perverted when taken outside the context of Christ and his love, as can all things.

So I looked at the hold, looked down at the cute Christian girl who was belaying me, and decided to be passionate. It's a good thing cute Christian girls are good belayers, cause I sure did fall and nearly popped my spleen. Ok, so maybe I was just trying to show off...but I still think passion is synonymous with death. Thankfully, in this case, to die is to live!! What are your thoughts?

Dan