by Christian Garcia
Colossians 1:1-2 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Michael Phelps still stands as the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. And rightly so when you consider how much he pushes his body. One writer documented that this professional athlete swims nearly fifty miles each week. That’s the minimum. He trains five to six hours per day and practices more depending on the altitude.
One could argue that the secret to his success hides in his biology. He just has good genetics for swimming. Others would give the credit to his trainer, Bob Bowman, and certainly he played a major role. However, this author disagrees that biology or training alone account for the majority of Michael’s twenty-three gold medals. It’s his passion. If a person has no passion, it does not matter how smart, healthy, or strong his body and mind may be. He will never come out on top without passion.
When it comes to serving God, Paul stands out as a spiritual Olympic athlete. His introduction to the book of Colossians illuminates his underlying passion. The very first verse tells us that Paul understood who he was: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” Like an ambassador who sees himself as his nation’s representative, so Paul saw himself as the herald of heaven’s celestial city.
One cannot find a single recorded social circle of Paul’s life where the gospel was not on his mind. His first instinct upon conversion in Acts 9 is to preach the gospel. In seeing a group of women praying by the riverside in Acts 16, he tells them about the risen Messiah. Alone in the center of Athens, an openly pagan city, his stirred spirit could not refrain from pointing the heathen men to the Unknown God. Understanding who sent him provided the bedrock for how he lived.
When a believer internalizes Who he represents, every fabric of his social life submits to the sovereignty of Christ. What others would think of as a regular trip to the grocery store becomes a window of opportunity to find a fellow shopper, or a cashier with an opened heart. The dull and unsavory routine of taking a sick child to the pediatrician suddenly deepens to an occasion of eternal significance to the godly mother prayerfully witnessing to the waiting room attendants or to the staff.
Based on the dusty tract racks in many of today’s churches, a lot of God’s children seem to have lost sight of their position. It would seem that the man who sees himself as a church-going Christian on Sunday often forgets that he is a gospel-giving Christian on Monday. With churches prioritizing better meeting facilities and fellowship-based programs, there seems to be an ever-weakening discipline in personal evangelism. The culprit seems to be an identity crisis.
Passion for spiritual living flows into a passion for reaching people. A man excited about the things of God but never testifying of the things of God is no better than a hypocrite. Parents would rather encourage their children to earn good grades in school and play well in sports than prepare them to give an account to Christ. A smart athlete may get a good scholarship that would give him a higher paying job in this life but leave him bankrupt when he enters eternity.
Have you thought to measure your spiritual passion? Take a look at last week’s agenda. Who were you making a priority to reach while you did your errands or attended that family gathering? Did you turn that conversation with the mail lady to the gospel or did you stay on the topic of the weather? Are you more concerned with how your children play their sport or how faithfully they are inviting their teammates to church? Understanding who we are determines what we do.
If your analysis leaves you uncertain about your spiritual passion, write a notecard of all the social circles in your life. Make it a point to pray for that cashier you always see at the grocery store. Pray for that coworker you know is unsaved, and look for opportunities to take him or her out to lunch and build a friendship. Refuse to live next week with an identity crisis. When you understand who you are to Christ, it impacts what you do for Christ.