27 …“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength and with all your mind,…”
Luke 10:27 (ESV)
Popular camouflage clothing and hunting equipment company Mossy Oak’s slogan states, “It’s not a passion. It's an obsession!” What’s the difference between passion and obsession? Is either a negative thing? As an avid hunter, I have been aware of that slogan for many years, and have at times considered what it really means.
I would submit to you today that a passion can certainly be a good thing, but an obsession often isn’t. For example, it may be perfectly fine to be passionate about sports, hunting, reading or finances. However, it seems there could be great danger in those things becoming obsessions. Let’s consider finances, or money – one who is passionate about finances, who handles his or her finances in a God honoring way, or who even takes time to counsel others on finances could be considered passionate. To be obsessed with money, however, is likely a problem. It likely means one is stingy, greedy, worried about money, and money or finances consumes every
ounce of their energy and time.
There’s really one obsession that I believe is acceptable, and that is to know Jesus Christ and make Him known. Are you obsessed with knowing Jesus Christ and making Him known? Is it your primary purpose for living? I think it should be! Can we strive to be like Apostle Paul who desired to know Christ and the power of His resurrection (Philippians 3:10)? Or, again looking at Paul, are we so passionate and committed to Jesus that we can say “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).” Have you ever asked someone to imitate you as you imitate Christ? If not, we should be careful to consider our passions and obsessions. Perhaps they are misaligned. Today, yes, even now is the right time to re-align our lives and seek Christ with all that we have and all that we are.
