Journal of Sacred Work

(Today’s Meditation is a written and edited by Catherine Self based on the writings of Erie Chapman on High Purpose Leadership and her own reflections.)

We listen to the words of the wise, because the wise are
explorers who have discovered lands we have not seen:

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…
Every step toward the goal…requires the passionate concern of
dedicated individuals…
This is the time for vigorous and positive action.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.   

   It is easy to confuse the words passion and desire.
Anthropologist Dr. Jennifer James has said there is a difference between the
two. “Passion can be satisfied,” says Dr. James, “desire cannot.” A parallel
truth is that desire is driven by fear.
On the other side of our hearts, passion is pulled forth by love.
    Just like dictatorship and partnership, both desire and
passion can generate the appearance of success. Beneath the surface, there is
an important difference. With desire, there is always the push of fear of failure. With passion, there is always the pull of love for success.
    My son, early in his life, learned the difference between desire
and passion. As a young, aspiring baseball pitcher, Matt first tasted the
desire to be the best pitcher on the team. His focus was on earned run
averages, strikeouts, the win/loss columns, and whether his stats were better
than other pitchers in his league. However, as Matt’s heart grew to love the
game, desire turned to passion. He looked forward to playing for the game
itself, the joy of doing his best, and thrilled in the successes of his
teammates.
    As Erie Chapman has written: "The football running back pushed by fear will run to avoid being tackled.  The player pulled by passion will be drawn to the sweet grass of the end zone.
The desire driven musician fears not
playing the notes right and practices her craft out of duty. The passion filled cellist loves the sound
of the instrument and practices for the joy of creation.
    "Desire looks over its
shoulder, passion looks ahead. Desire never notices the color of the sky,
passion always sees blue. Desire counts losses and experiences fleeting
happiness. Passion sees successes and knows the warm embrace of joy.
    "Living with high purpose comes from passion, from acting out
of love rather than from fear. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this
principle and practice. In the mid 1950’s, those who lived in the deep South
experienced a different reality than we see today. The south that Martin Luther
King knew was riddled with discrimination and infested with blatant bias by
whites toward blacks. If you were black in the 1950 south, you could not eat at
a restaurant, drink at a water fountain or use a public bathroom without
checking first for the sign that said “Colored Only.” You could not go to
school with white children. You could not vote without paying a poll tax. You
could not ride in the front half of the bus.
    "It was obvious to any fair minded person that segregation
was wrong. Yet it took a revolutionary movement to establish the obvious in America.
    "It
took the passion of Martin Luther King, Jr – passion that was evident in his
words and in his actions. This was a man who spoke with passion, walked with
passion, marched with passion, and lived with passion. And flickering within
those who followed this man of passion was a light ready to burst into flame.
   "The bright flame of those civil rights workers is the same
light that lives in each of us. For some it flickers low, almost beneath
consciousness, like a pilot light waiting for something or someone comes along
and fans it into flame. This is the flame
that passion can awaken.For each of us it is
meaning that motivates passion. If the driving passion for King was
integrating the South, and the driving passion for Mother Teresa was serving
the poorest of the poor, what is our passion?
If we have decided that meaning is
important and have made our personal
commitment, what is our passion?

   "We need not look far to find those who need our passion. It is, of course, our patients. We must flame
into being the light of our passion because our patients and our peers need us
to be more than ordinary. They need us to live from and for a high purpose."

   As you move through your day, let these questions give you
pause for reflection:

1. What drives me in my work?
2. What passion pulls me forward in my life? In my work?
3. Is my passion bright enough to awaken the light in others?
4. If not, what would make my passion even more vibrant? 

“Hatred and bitterness
can never cure the disease fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life;
love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens
life; love illumines it.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

   May your lives be so illumined today.