Dear Friends,
I love being around passionate and enthusiastic people. Maybe it
is because as a high school and college athlete and then as an 8-year athletic
director in Fort Lauderdale Fl., I have come to appreciate the value passion
plays in a person, or in a team’s success.
As an athletic director, I always talked about the advantage our
teams had when they played at home, in front of some of the most wildly
enthusiastic fans in South Florida. We always encouraged our crowds to be the
12th man on the field at our football games or the 6th
man on the court of our basketball contests.
Crowd passion and enthusiasm can so inspire a team that they can
turn a heartbreaking loss into a breath-taking victory.
I love to see passion in athletics, but I love to see it in church
and in the workplace. At Sunday morning worship, I love to see hands lifted,
voices raised, and hearts overflowing with exuberance when we all sing “Raise a
Hallelujah,” as we did a couple of weeks ago.
I want to hang with passionate and enthusiastic people because I
know they will lift me up and make me better.
Harry Flaherty is just this kind of person. Harry is the state
director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and he has been a close
friend of mine for many years. Each Sunday, he sits in the front row carefully
and meticulously taking notes of the message. After one of those Sundays
when you leave the pulpit feeling like you could have done a better job, Harry
runs up to you and points to the two pages of notes he has taken in his little
sermon notebook he always carries with him. He then, with passion, goes on to
point out how your message impacted his life. Every Sunday morning preacher
should be so blessed to have a Harry Flaherty in his congregation.
Pete Rose was once asked which is the first to go as a baseball
player-his eyes, his legs, or his arm? His response was telling. He said, “None
of these things. It is when his enthusiasm goes that he is through as a
player.” 17 Indispensable Laws of Teamwork, John Maxwell, p. 80
When one’s passion is lost, the chances of success in any sport or
profession is significantly diminished. I believe passion is one of the
keys to successful evangelism. If we are not excited about our faith, then
probably others won’t be either. And if that is the case, it may be time to put
a hand over our heart and ascertain if we even possess a spiritual heartbeat.
Paul exhorts the Colossian church to be enthusiastic. “And
whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Col.3:23). In
Ecclesiastes we read, “Whatsoever your hands finds to do, do it with all your
might” (Ecc. 9:10).
Why did the workers in Nehemiah’s day complete the rebuilding of
the walls surrounding Jerusalem in just 52 days? It was because “the people had
a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6). They were enthusiastic, full of zeal and ardor and
the rest of those qualities that spell out the word passion.
Whatever you and I do on the athletic field, in church or in the
business world, let's do it enthusiastically. Let’s never be guilty of
going half speed, or let it be said of us that we sleepwalked through life.
It has been said, that "When a leader reaches out in passion,
he is usually met with an answering passion.” That is the kind of leader every
team, business, church and family desires. It is the kind of person who does
what he loves and loves what he does. So, let’s take the foot off the brakes,
and get moving, or better yet, get ‘scorching.' Who knows the difference
we might make today or maybe for all eternity?
Yours in faith and friendship,
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