Passion that chooses us

Discovering your passions

by Lee Ann Pomrenke
Passion. We know when we have it, and we know when we don’t. And we know it’s not something we can muster up when it just isn’t there.

During the cold, long nights of winter, after the excitement of Christmas and Epiphany has passed, our lack of passion can be all too obvious. We all go through times when we are stuck in a rut, merely going along with the status quo, possibly wanting to make a difference but with no idea where to start or motivation to think about it.

Other times we’re not looking for anything in particular, but somehow something chooses us. Stumbling into passion that way feels like “eureka!” Suddenly we find the spark that was inside us all along, now freed to change the world. MORE ›

Arise, shine this Epiphany

You know the song, “This little light of mine?” Perhaps you remember learning it in Sunday school or Vacation Bible School when you were a child. Maybe, like me, you sing it with your own children. Singing the song, we are energized to share the light of Christ “everywhere we go.” But how do we let that little light shine? Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. (Isaiah 60:1)

The author of chapters 56—66 of Isaiah addressed a discouraged people. Conditions were hard in Judah and money was tight. Yet amid this struggle and poverty sounds the prophetic imperative: “Arise, shine.” The words are followed by the promised coming of God’s glory. Christians have associated this passage with Epiphany, the festival marking the Magi or Wise Men following the light of the star to the infant Jesus. We believe that Christ is the light that has come into the world, a light that is the life of all people (John 1:4). It’s Christ’s light that dwells in us and allows us to arise and shine.MORE ›