Holiness, Passion & Spirit
FROM CHAPTER FOURTEEN: HOLINESS, PASSION & SPIRIT
HOLINESS
Holiness is a very BIG word. It brings to mind people that are considered Holy, the “Holy Ones” that is: Mystics, Saints, Sages, Monks, Priests, and Popes. We look at their lives as very different and very much set apart from the average person. As we know, the word Holiness can even be used as a reverent title that sets one apart from all others. And it seems to follow that if the person’s life is holy their actions would be holy as well; therefore, their actions would also be set apart. We not only see people as being holy but things and places as well; we see shrines, statues, paintings, images, temples, cathedrals, and books: the Bible, the Koran, and Bhagavad-Gita as being holy and set them apart, too. In all, holiness seems to set someone or something apart. Kadesh is the Hebrew word for Holy or holiness, and it basically means something that is set apart or separate or something that is elevated out of the ordinary; something “special.” The Holiness of God is certainly something set apart or seems to be set apart from the world. We not only struggle with the image and idea of God but things holy as well, because they have been set so far apart from life as we know it. It seems only those extra ordinary lives manifest or experience what we call Holy, yet holiness is something that we all possess.
PASSION
If you are ready to take a particular path, do you feel on fire about it? Do you have a burning desire in your soul to do it, or have it, or be it? If you feel the fire, you can thank the Titan, Prometheus. In Greek mythology Prometheus was the god who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals. We all have that fire in us, and although it has been called other things, for me, no word describes it better than PASSION. It is the driving force or the burning desire behind the things we are called to do or have. As the myth goes, Prometheus paid a very high price for giving us the power that propels us to do great things and be great people. Passion is the fire of life that moves us in ways that only a myth could even begin to explain.
One could ask, “Is passion a path?” I would say that passion is the fuel or key ingredient for the paths that are powerful enough to change our lives. Any path with passion begins when our dreams will no longer let us sleep. It starts with a longing in our soul that will not leave us alone. It is about our hearts getting out in front of our heads and putting feeling before thinking. It is fanning the flame that burns in us with actions that we may not have done before. Passion on any path is about the dedication, the hours, the sacrifice, the labor, being completely devoted to and compelled to do something.
PASSION AND SPIRIT
The place we arrive at when our passion has become an actual achievement is fulfillment. Fulfillment is the end product of purpose and meaning, passion is the vehicle to these ends. When our lives achieve fulfillment we help create a better world. How can anyone fulfill a passion and not see the magnificence that has unfolded in their lives and not wonder about that magnificence? How can anyone achieve something great and not have grown their faith, regardless of their belief? How can anyone witness the wonder of life and not see something behind the experience? Yes, eventually it all has to, in one way or another, come back to God. After all, “All roads lead to Rome.”(Proverbs)
From the Poem: You Are a Shinning City
“You are a Shining City
Your arms forever unfurled.
Your dream cannot be hidden;
Your light is the light of the world.”