Last week we talked about having passion and then having it stolen from us. The big question is "Why does that happen?" On this week's blog, hopefully I have some answers for you.

You are in for a treat. There is so much information we have made it into multiple blog posts. This one will be a summary for all of you "Type A" personalities who like an executive summary.

The other seven blogs are for those of you who like to dive a little deeper. You do not have to read them all at one time, but savor each individually to get the most out of it. 

Having ALS, with my life in such turmoil, I have to think about these things all the time to keep my fire burning.  You may be suffering something too. All of these challenges will sap your strength and rob you of passion.  Making your life boring and lacking joy.  That is the enemies scheme. Don't let the enemy win.  Read this blog and fight back!

The following seven passion thieves are from Rick Warren's book, "Reigniting your Passion for God".

1. An Unbalanced Schedule

That means either if you’re overworked or you are under worked you’re going to lose your passion for life and lose your passion for God. Life is a series of seasons, the Bible says. There’s a season for everything. And there’s a rhythm to life. You need both in your life -- both input and output. You need both rest and work. And too much of either will cause you to lose your passion. Too much work will cause you to lose your passion. Too much nothing -- boredom -- will cause you to lose your passion too, if you’re not working enough. 

2. An Unused Talent

An unused talent will cause you to lose your passion for life and your passion for God. 1 Peter 4:10 says "Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gifts well."

Notice God gives you certain talents, abilities, personality, gifts -- the shape that He’s given you -- and those gifts, those talents that you’ve been given are not for your benefit. They’re for the benefit of other people. My gifts are for your benefit. Your gifts are for my benefit. You are to use those gifts in the service of other people. God has given you a special role in this world. He wants you to make a contribution with your life. God says, I have given you these gifts and talents.

3. An Unconfessed Sin

This is a big one. Few things rob us of joy, rob your confidence, rob your passion, more quickly than guilt. Here’s how it works with us with guilt, the sin in our lives. We don’t walk around thinking, "I have a sin in my life. I am a guilty person."

 No, we rationalize it consciously. Consciously we think, "It’s ok. Everybody’s doing it. It’s no big deal." But subconsciously it gnaws at us. Subconsciously whenever it gets quiet that guilt pops into your mind. Subconsciously right now as I’m talking about it, it begins to pop into your mind. 

4. An Unresolved Conflict

Conflict just drains the passion right out of you. Do you ever start a day and it’s going to be a great day -- you know it? You just fly out of bed. You’re awake from the moment you get up. You’re ready for the day -- shower, breakfast -- you’re ready.

 You’re on the way out the door and you have a fight with your husband or your wife. All the zip goes out of your doo-dah. It’s like the air going out of a tire when the conflict comes. That’s what conflict does to us. It takes all the passion out of our lives. Your attitude all of a sudden just goes flat. 

5. An Unsupported Lifestyle

Sometimes you lose passion for God because you’re not spending time around other people who have a passion for God. You’re not spending time around other Christians. You’re not getting any fellowship.

I love this incredibly practical verse in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, just common sense from the Bible. "Two are better than one... because if one falls down his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" We need each other. We all fall sometimes. We all stumble at times. So we all need people to help us up in our lives.

6. An Unclear Purpose

When you forget the purpose of your life that is a sure way to kill your passion for life and for God. If you don’t know the purpose for life, why bother? Why get up in the morning? Why put forth the effort? Why get out of bed? Life without purpose is activity without direction. It’s motion without meaning. Life without purpose is trivial, petty, and pointless. 

7. An Undernourished Spirit

Every day you face all kinds of circumstances that conspire to shrink your spirit and shrivel your heart. You’re going to get up tomorrow morning. You’re going to have distractions and disappointments. You’re going to have conflicts and you’re going to have changes and challenges. You’re going to have problems and pressures. You’re going to have frustrations and fears and failures and fatigue. 

All of these things fall in on you to shrivel your heart and shrink your spirit. So you must intentionally nourish your spirit. If you don’t do it nobody else is going to do it for you. Nobody else is going to nourish your spirit. So if you don’t take the time and trouble to do it, it’s going to shrivel up.

Congratulations! If you made it this far you have a real thirst for knowledge.  Give yourself a pat on the back.  Now the challenge is using this information and keep the passion growing. 

Being disabled, I have to rely on other people to do all the basic things in my life. It would be easy for me to give up but I refuse to allow ALS to quench my fire.  I have an unquenchable spirit,  What excuses do you have?

The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go, "I’m going to do something with my life today."


Without passion life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull. God created you with the emotions to have passion in your life and He wants you to live a passionate life. Passion is what mobilizes armies into action. Passion is what causes explorers to boldly go where no man’s gone before. Passion is what causes scientists to spend late night hours trying to find the cure to a dreaded disease. Passion is what takes a good athlete and turns him or her into a great athlete where they’re breaking records. You’ve got to have passion in your life.

Romans 12:1 "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor." Keep the fires going in your life.   Notice, it’s not automatic. It’s a choice. It’s a discipline. It’s something you must maintain. 

We are not by nature passionate about God. It’s something that we must choose to do. We get distracted and everything in life conspires to keep us from being passionate about God. So He says keep the passion going. Keep the fires going. It’s a discipline. 

Everything in life conspires to keep you from being passionate and it dissipates your energy. 

I had a birthday party and I was given a helium balloon.  It flew up and hit the ceiling, what now?  Simple answer, "Wait." The truth is, it wasn't even that long. In just a few hours the balloon began to deflate, lose its buoyancy and come back down. 

A lot of times we’re like that. When we first become passionate about anything we really understand what a good deal we have.  We say, "I now have a purpose for living."  But as time goes by we begin to lose our steam. We begin to lose our zip, our zest, our enthusiasm. What happens? Why does that happen? 

It happened to me and I'm sure it happens to you.


The real question is why do we lose the energy and let the passion die?  I did some research and I found a reason.  Actually it was not just one reason,  there are multiple reasons.  Each of these reasons are easy to understand and address; but, they need to be identified.  

Have I piqued your curiosity?  If I have, leave me a comment letting me know if you want to know the answers.  I will post them in my blog next week.


Thanks for reading and commenting.

A friend of mine asked me,"What has ALS taught you?" That is an interesting question. So I asked her, "Why do you want to know?" And she answered, "ALS is a very difficult struggle and you are a very wise man.  Anything that you have learned will benefit others."

I was humbled by her response. And it took me a few days to come up with an answer.  Hopefully my answer will enlighten some of you and inspire the rest of you.  

The first thing that I learned is that ALS is a very cruel disease. It has progressively taken my abilities away. What I can do today I might not be able to do tomorrow. And I know the ending, I will be left with the ability to only move my eyes and nothing else.  Soon afterwards my lungs will stop functioning and I will suffocate. It's quite a picture to look forward to.

The second thing that I have learned is that I am not the only one suffering. This disease has hit our whole family. My wife and I had plans that we will not be able to do now.  My children used to look at me as their provider but not anymore. Devastating.  I can see in my children's eyes the disillusionment and it will leave a mark for life.

Are you depressed yet? I know that I am. 

As I explained this to my friend, she asked me, "If you have all this in your head, why are you always so happy?" Finally she asked the right question! What ALS has really taught me is to stay in the moment. And let me explain how.  It is very dangerous to let my mind go into the past and think about all the things that I was able to do.  And it is even worse, to project myself into the future and imagine what is going to happen to my body. So that leaves me in the only place that is left: the present. That is the secret to my happiness. 

I have also learned what is important and what is trivial. By the way, most of what I used to think about is trivial.  The only things that matter now are relationships with my family, friends and God.  (And not necessarily in that order).

The key to my happiness and your happiness is the ability to discipline the mind. I have a choice to make, I can choose to dwell on the negative or simply appreciate what I have right now. Let me elaborate. If three months from now I lose the ability to speak and even move my legs, I would give everything to have that ability back. I would be happy with that. And guess what, I have that ability right now so I am happy.  And that is what it means to live in the moment. 

The final thing that I have learned is that everyone is watching me, from my children to my neighbors.  They are all rooting me on and seeing how I handle life.  Almost saying, "If he can do it, I can do it." That was quite a realization for me. I am representing Christ in my struggle. Am I going to be faithful or am I going to lay down and give up. What about you? How many people are watching you? You might be surprised.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13

"We are all going to Grandma's for Thanksgiving!" I announce to the family. The announcement was met with a shriek of joy from my youngest daughter. She always loves Grandma's house and especially her food.

We all prepare for a three hour journey. On the way,  my youngest saw a Dairy Queen and, of course, she pleaded for ice cream. I just smiled at her and said, "No, honey, we are going to Grandma's and she has a big meal planned with all your favorites." 

About an hour later, our arch nemesis came into sight, the golden arches of McDonald's. My youngest practically jumped out of the car begging for something to eat. This was not the normal begging, this was intense. As much as I would love to feed her, I knew the best is yet to come. I had to convince her that we are not stopping and she will be happier for it. 

As we journeyed onward, she became more and more obsessed with meeting her immediate needs. Hunger.  It was driving her behavior and I understood what she wanted, but I knew what she needed so I did not stop. 

I was thinking, I wish she would focus on the future. Grandma's house was only an hour away. Kids can be so impatient!

Wait, I think I am describing myself. Perhaps I am describing you. I am so caught up in the here and now that I have forgotten our destination.  I want to be satisfied right now and don't want to wait for the promises of God to be fulfilled.

Just like my youngest, who was forgetting about Grandma's dinner, I am forgetting about God's plan for me in eternity. Looking at life from an eternity point of view will change your focus.

I have ALS, I want to be healed right now, but God's timing is not mine. The question is, do I trust Him? And if I trust Him, what should my attitude be? Desperation? Anxiety? Or Calm? Ultimately my choice and it is also your choice.

We have to look at this life from and eternity point of view. If we don't, we will make decisions that are not the best and our attitude will turn sour. Worst of all, we want to drive and basically we don't know where we are going.

If you are going through some struggles, challenges, or difficulties, try looking at them from a long view instead of the short view. It will make all the difference.  Take it from me, dying with ALS with limited time, the long view keeps me going strong. I know that God has a big plan for me, I trust Him and I need to let Him drive.