World Cup

I have learned something new about myself this last couple of weeks. I've learned that i love soccer. OK maybe love is a strong word I love the World Cup and like soccer a lot. I mean i still have to get over the flopping and the fact that you can tie. But overall soccer is starting to grow on me. Which is weird because i have always respected soccer players but I really never liked soccer. Not enough action, too much finesse and you can tie. I mean serious its so stupid to have a sport that can go on for 2 hours and then end with no winner. Seems like a waste but I digress.

The best hypothesis for my new love for soccer is that I am watching it with passionate people. I mean over here in Korea every game is like a national holiday. I watched a game with about a million crazy Koreans last week and since then I have been hooked. I have been staying up all night watching games and getting into every game. But that got me thinking how passion is contagious. Its hard to be around somebody that is passionate about anything and not have an opinion or become passionate yourself. I have always thought of myself as a passionate person. I mean i take my opinion very seriously and I dont mind anyone else knowing it. Anyone that knows me know how passionate I am about sports and my friends and my family. And there have been many times in my life that my passions have rubbed off on other people and that is a cool feeling honestly.

Keep that thought..... The other day I was listening to a sermon from Francis Chan and he told this story about a man who said he was hit by a semi truck. Chan was saying "are you sure you got hit by a truck. I dont see any broken bones. you sure dont look like you have been hit by a truck how are you still functioning" The guy said to Chan thats how a lot of Christians live. We say we have been hit by a truck say the Holy Spirit or an encounter with the Lord. But somehow we look exactly the same.

I know for me this has happened many times. I have this crazy experience and instead of living out of passion I live out of political correctness and fear of man and wanting to look cool or normal. But what if just for once in my (our) lives we live out of the passion that we say we have. How contagious would that be. Passion is maybe the most contagious thing that I have encountered from people besides Love. When you are around passion it is hard to not be affected somehow. Later in the sermon Chan said in order to encourage we have to have courage. Courage to live in the Lord and Follow his lead. That really spoke to me because when the Lord puts something in my heart to do for someone or even for myself there is a natural fear that comes up or some kind of embarrassment ( I know that I am the only one) to actually be obedient. But I (we) need courage to encourage and i (we) need to have courage to live our passion daily and to start infecting the ones around us with what everybody needs THE LOVE OF THE LORD

So its kind of weird but everytime I watch soccer I get a little motivated to love and encourage someone. SO FIND YOUR PASSION AND LIVE YOUR PASSION