Pastor Ryan Gaffney

I think the word "Passion" is misused on our circles to the detriment of people who are trying to follow advice about engaging one’s passion. Someone approached me the other day and wanted advice because he did not feel like he had any passion. No job he really loved, No idea what to do with his life, just a bachelors degree and a need to feed himself. He wanted help finding his passion. This is what I told him:

We pretend like it’s something you really really enjoy doing, something that fills you with glee that you would do in your spare time just for fun. That’s not what a passion is.

It is actually a religious reference. The Passion is the crucifixion of Jesus. That doesn’t mean that Jesus loved getting crucified, that means that he cared enough about what was going on in that story (the perceived will of God) that he was willing to suffer, and suffer mightily in exchange for it.

So the adage holds true "do something as a career, you would do for free" but not because you enjoy it so much. Do it because you care about the results of it being done so much that you would endure it even for no money. Do it because it is your passion. Your crucifixion.

You may hear people who say their passion is video games, or ponies. You may hear businessmen joke that their true passion is Golf. Those people are idiots…. Unless of course the businessman means that he loves golf so much that he would do it every day, in the snow and the rain, that he would neglect his marriage and his children and spend long hours on the course until the blisters on his hand become unbearable because he has not yet perfected that dogleg shot. That is very rare.

More likely you care about something that matters more than golf. Something like human progress, or justice, or cross-cultural engagement. Maybe you hate it whenever animals are mistreated, when children are neglected, or whenever the truth is hidden from the masses. Maybe you would be willing to sacrifice to make one of those situations better. Do that.

Or, on the off chance that there really is nothing you care about, nothing that matters to you, nothing that grabs your attention because of it’s intrinsic value rather than what it pays, then you need to spend some time growing as a person. Get an easy job that pays enough to live on, don’t work more than half time, and spend the rest of your time learning to love deeply and analyzing with a professional what mechanism is broken inside you that previously prevented you. Because living without any passion is no way to live.

One of my favorite things about by job as a campus minister is it’s amorphous nature. Between ministering, fund raising, networking, and personal development it is very difficult to find an activity that I might participate in which is not part of my job.

Flying Kites in the park? That’s a “Gathering Event”
Read a book in the local coffee shop? That’s called “Reasearch”
Going to a bar with some freinds? We call that, “Evangelism”

Earlier today I went to an event at the International Student Center and ended up being interviewed about multiculturalism by the campus newspaper… But I didn’t go with the intention of forwarding InterVarsity’s value of Ethnic Reconciliation. I went because I like Korean food!

I understand how this might drive someone else crazy, because you’re never really off the clock. But you’re also never really on the clock, you do the work you want to do, when and where you want to do it, and if it get’s interrupted, so be it! Nobody is going to tell me that my 15 minute break is not for another 6 minutes.

Often I’ve been out somewhere, at about 10 at night. and people will start to recognize that they need to get to bed. “I’ve got work in the morning” someone will say “I’ve got to be in the office by 9” Another will say “Yeah I’m opening tomorrow, I have to be up by 6” and one lucky person will say “I can stay up, I don’t have to be in until noon”… That’s usually when all the heads turn to look at me as if to say “And what about you Ryan?”

And I look around at them, shrug and say “I’m pretty sure I’m at work” It’s phenomenal.

But that’s not something available only to Campus Ministers. Actually I’d argue that’s the call for all of us, we just have to define “work” differently.

See I’m lucky enough to get paid for what every christian is called to do anyway: Spread the Gospel, Love the Neighbor, Make the World a Better Place. The difference between me and a Mechanic, is that a Mechanic also fixes cars for people.

And It’s my hope that everyone will have a job they love. Whether that’s fixing cars, or performing surgeries, or teaching windsurfing, because when you love your job you never work a day in your life. But it’s also my hope that every christian, would love their ministry, and engage in it constantly, and never, never, be off of God’s clock.