Years ago, I sat across the table at a coffee shop with a new acquaintance. We were waiting for a church service to start and made small talk. Without a warmup, he gushed, “What’s your passion? I was taken back and froze. But he sat there staring at me as if he had just asked the world’s most straightforward and basic question.
I mumbled some random thing I was interested in but couldn’t provide an exact answer.
What was most disconcerting was his matter-of-fact tone which made it sound like I was supposed to have an answer.
Asking What is your passion? is not the best question when trying to find a career you love.
If you have it, it was because it was given to you by God. In this case, go, be thankful, and share and grow in what the Lord has put on your heart. Passion is a beautiful feeling, and you can enjoy the gift.
Otherwise, passion is ambiguous and unreliable. Ultimately, it’s inconsequential in finding your professional purpose. It can be one indicator in telling you what career choices to make, but there is another, in particular, that we all share.
Before I share about that, here’s why passion can be overrated.
Most People Don’t Know What Their Passion Is
You won’t have to worry about your professional calling if you’re called like Bezalel or Oholiab in the Old Testament. God told them what to do via Moses. “Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts (Exodus 35:30-33).
Wouldn’t it be nice for a modern-day Moses to tell you what gifts God gave you and the work he wants you to do? (But not in a creepy fashion.) Sign me up for that interview. I’d jump at the chance to be an artisan in a cathedral. Full-time ministry, however, is only one way God calls people.
Others can get zapped with passion, like William Wilberforce. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, he knew his call to abolish slavery and dedicated his life to the fight. His passion for justice greatly impacted the United States and the world. Closer to home, a friend of mine knew he wanted to be a medical doctor early on and dedicated the next eight years of his life to studying. Another realized that her passion for kids could best be used by being a kindergarten teacher.
God gives some people a particular enduring passion, but will he give it o you?
If he does, great! But you don’t need it and can’t expect it to come. Passion isn’t the best motivation anyway. So, it’s totally OK (and normal) not to know what your passion is. Trotting a sinuous professional path is what most of us will experience. God is always with you, and “He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deut 31:6).
Passion is Like Your Cat
Even if passion is thrust upon you, it still has a mind of its own. It does what it wants when it wants, like your fickle Siamese cat. You can’t incite passion to come to you at a moment’s notice any more than you can coax Fluffy to sit on your lap when he doesn’t want to. A furry visit is a gift, but you don’t control her.
Passion is a gift, but you can’t rely on it. What will you do if that strong desire leaves? It’d be silly to quit your job at the first sign of professional doldrums or go back to school when your passion-o-meter is running low. All jobs have dull days and challenging seasons. You might get a new boss you don’t click with and want to run for the hills. In reality, you might need to change careers or get more training, but don’t do it for lack of passion.
Passion is an emotion, and, by nature, emotions are inconsistent. Whimsical. They come and go like all feelings do. It’s par for the course to feel strongly about a cause but have it lesson with time. A long time ago and church, I heard a speaker who dedicated his life to giving Bibles to unreached people groups in Asia. His words fired me up, and I was ready to book a ticket to Myanmar. But the powerful desire subsided over the next couple of weeks.
Passion feels fantastic and can sometimes help us get started in a new direction. It’s a lovely fuel that makes us feel good and motivates us to get stuff done. But passion is unreliable and uncontrollable, so why would you attempt to base your career on it?
When passion shows up, simply enjoy your time together, like when Fluffy finds a place on your lap.
Keep in mind that I’m not talking about the medieval meaning of passion which is Christ’s suffering on the cross. We don’t use the term like this today. When people say passion, they refer to an emotion.
Passion is a shaky ground for making career decisions.
Populous Passions
Do you have more than one passion? Are you the kind of person who has a heart for multiple things or ministries? Several injustices stir my soul, such as extreme poverty, malnutrition, incarcerated youth, and lonely, forgotten people who don’t have anyone to talk to. It breaks my heart to see the elderly in homes with no one to spend time with them.
We could go out on a limb and transform the question, What is your passion? to What are your passions? Yet it falls short because the latter question strains the diaphanous idea that passion is crucial for finding a career. It’s not.
If you have multiple passions, the answer is to explore them, try them out one by one, and see what you can do to turn one into a sustainable, live-giving career that honors God and blesses others. There are ways to do this, as I’ll hopefully explain in future articles.
Replace Passion With Something More Subtle
In the context of a career, passion is a good thing—if you have it. A strong desire is sometimes needed to ignite action, giving you the motivation to ask someone on a date or kickstart a new business. I’m sure Wilberforce looked at his cause’s atrocity and was struck by passion. Passion for a field is also like a super glue that sticks you where you’re at when you have a bad day or want to give up.
Many people, however, won’t have this powerful, life-changing experience with passion. This feeling is unreliable, and we often have more than one.
Instead of passion, follow your curiosity. Everyone has curiosity. Curiosity is what you’re interested in—the things, ideas, or jobs that catch your attention. So, pay attention to what you pay attention to. Notice what you notice. What problem in the world makes you take a second look? As my pastor said, For What do you have a burden? If you were overhearing a conversation, which one would make your ears perk? What science, business, or other area do you want to learn more about?
If passion is a raging inferno, curiosity is a spark. The good news is that, unlike passion, everyone has flickers of interests. What are you curious about? Could you follow it long enough to read a book about it? Or, why not interview someone in that field or watch a Youtube video? Start with the low-hanging fruit that curiosity provides and go from there.
The key is to follow this inspiration long enough to see where it leads. It could guide you to a hobby, a career, or nothing at all. Not all sparks start fires. Closed doors are helpful because now you can check those fruitless experiences off your list. As my mom says, when you hit a wall, turn.
You’ll probably have to try different things, gain experience, and take some risks before knowing what career is a good fit for you. Curiosity, unlike passion, won’t cease throughout your life. The point is to be a student of yourself and listen to the whisper of curiosity.
God is with you in your journey as much as he is when he divinely dons people with a passion for one profession. And the Lord always cares more about who you are becoming in the process as he does with you finding a job you love.
Passion is optional. Embrace it when it stops by. But curiosity is essential, and we all have it.
