Choosing What I am Passionate About

I had a professor in college who challenged all of us to be passionate . . . about anything. Throughout the semester he often said that it didn’t really matter what we were passionate about, just that we cared deeply enough about a cause, a line of work, or an area of study to give ourselves completely to it. Half-heartedness was our greatest enemy as we took steps into adulthood. I was moved and spent quite a bit of time afterwards pondering what I could care about so deeply to have it direct my life in the way that the teacher described. While I claimed to follow Jesus at the time, the idea of making God the focus of my passion did not come to mind for some reason. The professor had directed us to find a cause or activity to feel deeply about. And so, I tried a few things, like long-distance running, exploring new kinds of music, and even political projects and activities that benefited the poor.

It was not too long after this that I proposed to my girlfriend. Marriage and my passion for her and our life together became my focus. The other pursuits were pushed into the back seat, with some of them falling out of favor for good. Left to themselves, passions often don’t last long – definitely not forever. But I have often revisited some of those early ponderings and wondered whether it is true that it doesn’t matter what I am passionate about, or what I allow my deepest affections to go after. Passion is the goal, regardless what it’s focused on. But is EVERYTHING worth passionately committing to as long as I feel it deeply? Does simply choosing to give my affection to something automatically make it worthy of a passionate pursuit?

Just as long as I feel it deeply!

The words “passion” and “affection” can both be used to refer to types and levels of emotions. It is generally accepted today that one of the most important “virtues” anyone can personally cultivate in life is that of being passionate. And increasingly, I hear the echo of my professor’s words: it is most important to FEEL strongly — about anything! Just say “no” to apathy! Feeling is, after all, how you know you are truly alive.

But can I be passionate about the wrong thing?

Music is one way that passions and affections are expressed. It is interesting to listen for people’s affections showing up in their lyrics. Even going back to some of the music I am most familiar with there are some eye openers. The songs of the Beatles are now considered mild compared to more contemporary stuff. I always understood their 1966 hit Got to Get You Into My Life to be a love song expressing a guy’s longing to be with his girl. But years later, writer Paul McCartney admitted that it was about passion for marijuana, not a person. In 1967 the Beatles released Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Though the group denied it, it was generally believed it was a veiled tribute to their affection for LSD. They were definitely passionate about some things.

So, why does it matter what I am passionate about?

Ordering My Passions?

One of the early Christian thinkers, Saint Augustine used a phrase Ordo Amoris, which is Latin for Rightly Ordered Loves. His point, as far as I understand, was that true virtue is formed within someone when that person orders what he or she loves (that is, what a person is passionate about or has affection for) with what God loves. Some things deserve a greater level of affection from us than other things. I can say I love pizza and that I love my wife. But if I behave as if my affection or passion for food is the same or stronger than my affection for my wife, there is something wrong. Pizza, no matter how good it is, is worthy of a much lower level of affection than any person. This is so because God loves people more than inanimate material substances. Therefore, my affections are rightly ordered when they align with God’s.

In other words, there are things in this world that are not worth loving, or at least not worth the level of love we are tempted to give them. My affections can and need to be trained so that what I feel aligns with universal and eternal truths. Otherwise, they end up being shaped by other forces in this world. Letting my feelings decide what is worthy of my love, I get overly attached (sometimes fanatically) to sports teams, celebrities, substances, philosophies, as well as to those who sing love songs to their drugs.

Augustine reminds us that there must be an order of descending value and worthiness. Some things are worth loving and valuing more than others because they are closer to God’s heart. The human heart has to be taught and shaped to appreciate the eternal standards of goodness, beauty, and justice. Contrary to what our culture teaches, not everything is good; beauty is not merely in the “eye of the beholder” (somethings are fundamentally ugly); and justice is a standard that applies to all, not changing with the individual or group. If there is an order to what is worthy of my love and affection, then it is right for me to train myself to appreciate that order. Of course, it works best when children can be taught how to train and direct their own affections according to Ordo Amoris when they are young. It makes for a lot less confusion when they become adults.

Which are Eternally Valuable?

All this takes me back to that college professor’s call to be passionate about anything. He never warned us that we might set our passion on things that are not good, ugly, or unjust. And some things are not necessarily good or bad but simply trivial and a grand waste of time and energy. Others might be good but distract us from the greatest good — God Himself and all that He has for us. How often have I been tempted to highly exalt lesser things over and at the expense of that which is greater and the greatest of all?

Which of my passions are rooted in eternity? God in His goodness, beauty, and justice is the worthiest of my affections. May I learn to order them rightly.

Response:

• What am I most passionate about?
• How would I evaluate and order what I feel most affectionate toward?
• Where is God and what He values in my Ordo Amoris?
• From where do I get my standards of goodness, beauty, and justice?
• Jesus, help me order my passions rightly!

(Edited and reposted from December 11, 2023 “Choosing the Order of My Affections”)