A Passionate Pursuit

On Monday, as I was stuck in LA traffic on my way to Evan's appointment, I sat behind a car who's licence plate holder said, "Lexus: The Passionate Pursuit of Perfection". It got me thinking. I'm certainly not pursuing perfection with my car. I drive a Toyota minivan with coffee stains and Cherrios on the floor. But what would people say about me. I want to be passionate about Jesus and living a life that glorifies Him, growing in likeness to Him and thus into "perfection". But sometimes, I'm afraid my actions are like that licence plate stating to the world that I passionatly pursue a perfect body image, or a perfect house, or perfect kids, or a perfect homeschool.

I just finished reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. He talks a lot about passion.

God created us to live with a single passion to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives. -John Piper (emphasis mine)

I think it took me two weeks of thinking about not making much of myself, but making much of Christ before I could even read anymore of his book. It seemed to make sence to me that I would feel better and more loved if people (and God) would make much of me not the other way around. Again Piper writes:

God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the most loving act. Anyone else who exalts himself distracts us from what we need, namely, God. But if God exalts himself, he calls attention to the very thing we need most for our joy. If great paintings could talk, and they saw you walking through the gallery staring at the floor, they would cry out, "Look! Look at me. I am the reason you are here." And when you look and exult in the beauty of the paintings with those around you, your joy would be full. You would not complain that the paintings should have kept
quiet. They rescued you from wasting your visit. In the same way no child complains, "I am being used" when his father delights to make the child happy with his own presence.

I am still thinking about this and God is changing me and the way I think about people. I also just finished reading When People are Big and God is Small by Edward T. Welch. He says, "We need to need people less and love them more." Hopefully, by God's grace, I am learning to do that. Then, my "licence plate frame" will point more toward my heavenly Father, and less to my imperfect self. And I'm learning that actually, in doing so, there is joy.