Home Youth Leaders Articles for Youth Leaders How Do You REALLY Follow Your Passion?

How Do You REALLY Follow Your Passion?

My husband has been reading a Dan Allender book recently, and he shared this quote with me:

God invites us to follow our passions even when we are unaware that they exist.”

It poses a great question. What does following our passions mean, if we aren’t quite sure what they are?

How do we find the passion that delivers joy and invites us also into suffering?

So, passion is finding the place where you can suffer with those who suffer and also rejoice with those who rejoice.

Ask yourself, “What takes my breath away? What breaks my heart?”

These questions are good; hard, but they are good.

My husband and I are only six months into planting a church that we had three weeks to prepare for—so we’re still very much side cramping from a jog that turned into a sprint when we should have been running marathon pace. It’s not easy! We’re all figuring out how to love each other. And for must of us it starts with Jesus, humility and a whole lot of therapy.

The questions and the dreams are good—but when they get hard, we have to set ourselves up for believing that they are also good.

  • You need a person or a practice that will help you look at the wounds of your past, help you figure out how you tend to cope, and give you some space to re-imagine what life looks like when you live with helpful tools. If you want to walk into your passion—but you’re not sure how—ask someone to explore it with you.
  • Learn how to tell your story better. Three questions you have to ask when learning to follow your passions: What’s your story? What’s your fear? What is a first step you can take to face it?
  • Listen to the book The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron. Best. Book. This. Year. It helps us see how we were wounded as children and gives us opportunities to see our own coping cycles as potential areas of growth. To listen to (not read) Ian sharing about what it’s like to be a 7 made me laugh and made me cry. Keep learning about who you are. (A little side note: If you want to get the book for FREE here’s how. Download the HOOPLA APP right now. It links with your local library card for 12 free titles a month. If you don’t have a library card, then stop everything you’re doing and get a library card. Libraries exist to give you access to ALL OF THE BOOKS!)

I challenge you to learn more than you knew about yourself yesterday. Ask God to show you something new. Your passions are waiting for you, but maybe you’re not sure what they are yet and where they will lead you. Maybe you have some fears? That’s OK too. But you have a people and a Creator who can face your fears with you.

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Brooklyn recently founded The Justice Movement, a church youth movement that helps teenagers help others. Her priority is to inspire and resource youth to break cycles of poverty through faith in action. An ordained pastor, Brooklyn has served in full time youth ministry for the last 16 years, authored numerous books, contributes and communicates for Orange Leaders, and speaks at camps and conferences. She, her husband Coy, and daughters Kirra and Mya live in Lakeland, FL where they like being outside, playing with their dog Marley. www.brooklynlindsey.com @brooklynlindsey/ www.justicemovement.com @thejustmove