This is the second instalment from my book 'Powered by Passion'.
Unstoppable Instinct
There used to be a male dog in my house that was not castrated. The wall of our house was a bit low. My brother advised that we raise it else, the dog would jump over it when it grew up. Initially, I ignored it. However, later the wall was raised by two levels of block. One day, I learnt the dog had been jumping over the wall at night. This was hard to believe because this dog was not that big.
However, I had my biggest shock one morning while praying. I thought I heard the thump of something that had fallen into the yard. When I turned to see, the dog had just jumped in after a night’s duty in town.
There was nothing I could do to stop the dog from jumping over the wall no matter how hard I tried. So, the question is what was the driving force or motivation that kept the dog going out, and that gave it the ability to jump over every barrier placed in its path?
I believe what kept this dog going was the passion or drive to reproduce itself and multiply, a passion to be fruitful and let its seed continue on earth - one of the most primordial passions. Absolutely nothing could stop this dog until it went one day and never came back. Again, the lesson is clear: true passion stops at nothing in its drive to achieve the goal desired. No barrier is high enough to stop a man or woman of passion from achieving set goals. This brings to mind some words of the song “Something inside so strong[i]“.
The farther you take my rights away
The faster I will run
You can deny me
You can decide
To turn your face away (your face away)
No matter, ‘cause there’s
Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it …
The drive to succeed and be fruitful in all we do is a very natural instinct. I am yet to see a man who literally walks in the reverse mode. In the image of God, we are designed to move forward and progress. Abraham Lincoln expressed this crisply when he said, “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward”. God has put in every man and woman the desire to be fruitful and multiply - the desire to succeed and break barriers, the desire to move forward in life. The barrier-breaking, new – frontier - seeking, adventurous spirit is a part of what humanity received from the Creator and nothing should be done to stifle its power in our lives.
The Bible says:
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:28 [Emphasis added]
The Trumpets of Passion: Our Lord Jesus Christ was a very passionate man and the most successful man in history. He was passionate about the mission God gave Him to fulfil. In fact, His sense of mission and passion for that mission manifested early in His life. It was like a mighty river in Him waiting to break its bounds to water and bless the barren places of humanity. In Luke 2:46-49, we read,
“And it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. [47] And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. [48] And when they saw Him, they were amazed: and His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. [49] And He said unto them, how is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business”?
While His parents were going home, He was in the Temple asking and answering questions from the doctors of the law. The trumpets of passion for His mission were sounding in His soul, and He was beginning to take charge of His life. His answer shows that He knew the “Father’s business” for His life at the tender age of twelve and He was pursuing it.
Many of us never seem to know what the “Father’s business” is for our lives so we go round in circles. Even though the trumpets of passion do sound in our souls when we are young, it looks like few ever respond to the sound of those trumpets[ii]. Those who do respond to that sound however never regret. Others manage to hear and respond to the sound of this trumpet after seeking for satisfaction in so many areas. By the age of twenty-seven, Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, who exemplified the idea of the artist as tortured genius, had been in turn a salesperson in an art gallery, a French tutor, a theological student, and an evangelist. Later, he found in art — through the charcoal drawings he made of the landscapes and people around him—the possibility of a new career[iii]. Like a homing pigeon, his artistic passion drew him until he settled as an artist and became the master of expressionism in art. Like Van Gogh, many of us spend many years as it were wondering in the ‘wilderness’ before turning to our true love. Interestingly, many of the world’s greatest stars and inventors discovered and pursued their passion when they were young.
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