Where’s the Passion?

Most of us who over the age of 50 remember her well. She was the little old lady (actress Clara Peller) who looked sorrowfully at a hamburger patty and lamented, “Where’s the beef?” Although Wendy’s lacked a big-name burger like Burger King’s “Whopper” or McDonald’s “Big Mac,” this one line became iconic in 1984 and was even used in a Democratic primary debate. Better yet for Wendy’s, their world-wide revenue increased 31% in one year.

In looking at our cultural landscape, reading numerous articles from “influencers”, and looking into the eyes of many young people, I am prompted to ask a similar question, “Where’s the passion?” Never have I personally seen a time when so many care so little about so much. Passion is absent in the pews. Politics are so polarizing and D.C. so inept, that frustrated Americans don’t even feel motivated to vote. The Covid narrative has gone from terrifying to captivating to suspicious to doubtful to cynical, all within two years. The Oscars, once the gatekeeper of Hollywood, was up 50% from the previous year’s viewership, but it was still their second lowest viewership … ever. Yes, even with the slap heard around the world, Hollywood’s influence is heading over a precipice, and hardly anyone cares.

Our trajectory as a nation is obvious. If Americans had been thinking over the last forty years, they would have known that this abyss of nothingness is the inevitable end of an entire generation being fed a steady diet of anti-God sentiment and Creation denial. Having been told man is a mere accident of pond scum existing in a meaningless universe doesn’t exactly make one’s pulse jump. Atheism and Nihilism are consequentially on the rise. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, when nothing is special, then nothing is special. There is nothing to look forward to and little to celebrate in the eyes of many. Young people are physically there but their eyes suggest nobody is really home.

Of course, all of this opens the door for all sorts of perverse behavior. If there is no meaning to life and no Higher Authority to whom we give an account, there is no true source for ethics or morality. It is just man doing what he thinks is right in his own eyes. The Texas school shooter simply acted out the logical extreme in a world that doesn’t think it needs God. Without a doubt, more school shootings will occur, regardless of law enforcement and legislative efforts. This is the result of inherent meaninglessness.

What does this mean for Christian homeschoolers? It means we must be diligent to share the truth of God and His glorious gospel with our children along with His Divine purpose for their lives. It means we need to make a big deal about the Sabbath, the local church, Christian community, birthdays, holidays, and family outings and service opportunities. We need to explain the blessedness of work, the joys of giving, and the importance of demonstrating self-control along with its benefits. Above all, it should challenge us to pray for our children to be passionate about life and see every day as a fresh expression of God’s greatness and goodness to His creation. In doing these things, God will stir their hearts with a passion to live life for His glory.

Please join us this month as we pray (and fast) for our children (and us) to be people of passion. I am not talking about some weird manifestation of passion but the joy of knowing that God is in absolute control over everything, He loves us, and wants to demonstrate His glory through us. We will be praying and fasting on June the 14^th or pick another day if it works better for you. Share these requests with your young adult children during your family devotions. You may be shocked by some of their insights.

1. Pray that our children will not only become true believers but will become passionate in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
   1. The backslider gets bored with himself; the godly man’s life is exciting. –Proverbs 14:14 (TLB)
   2. A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. –Proverbs 17:22 (NLT)

(Ask your children to rate their level of passion for Christ on a scale from 1 – 10 and ask why that number)

2. In a world filled with lies, deceit, and misrepresentations, pray that our children will be passionate about discerning truth, living in truth, and sharing truth with others.
   1. and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”–John 8:32
   2. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.—3 John 1:

(Ask your children to share some of the lies of culture.)

3. In a culture that is devaluing marriage, pray that our children—unless called to celibacy—will put a high priority on holy matrimony and that God would send them a godly mate, especially to those who have been waiting faithfully.
   1. Let marriage be held in honor among all, –Hebrews 13:4
   2. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. –Jer.29:6

(Share some of the benefits of marriage in your own life.)

4. Pray that our children will also have a growing passion for family as they head into their young adult years and will not get caught up in the culture of play that has captivated so many of their peers.
   1. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. –Psalms 127:3
   2. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!–Psalms 113:9

(Share some of the ways having a family has blessed your life as a parent.)

5. Pray that our children will be passionate about keeping their purity in heart, mind, eyes, ears, body, and speech.
   1. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. –Psalms 24:4,5
   2. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.–Phil. 4:8

(Talk about the joy of having a pure conscience before men and God as well as misery feeling condemned before both.)

6. Pray that our children will have a growing and unavoidable passion to disciple their children at home.
   1. For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” –Gen. 18:19
   2. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. –Deut. 6:7

(Ask for 2-3 advantages of homeschooling.)

7. Pray that our children—our young men in providing and hopefully our young women in the home—will find purpose, passion, and great satisfaction in their life work.
   1. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, –Col. 3:23
   2. Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, –Ruth 4:11
   3. And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. —Exodus 36:2

(Remind them that even before the fall, man was tasked with taking care of the Garden and therefore work is a gift from God. Do they see work as a gift?)

8. Pray that our children will be passionate about the reading, studying, and applying of God’s Word in their daily lives.
   1. for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. –Psalms 119:47
   2. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. –Psalms 119:1 (KJV)

(Ask them one thing they received from their personal devotions or family devotions.)

9. Pray that their passions will be expressed in a Christ-honoring, well-balanced, properly restrained, and humble manner.
   1. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. –Acts 4:33
   2. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ –Mark 12:30

(Talk about what it means to be in the world but not of the world.)

10. Pray that God will stir up our children to passionate action, unwilling to sit on the sidelines and allow others to do their work for them.
    1. for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. –2 Cor. 9:2
    2. The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless. –Job 17:8

(You may want to share one of your heroes who impacted your life.)