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How To Live Out Your Passions

"The greatest adventure of your life can begin today." By hannah gronowski
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There is a wrong you were born to make right.

And I would guess that there is something deep within you that has always known this to be true. 

It’s the passionate flicker of anger that flashes when you see someone suffering and it’s the knot that forms in your chest when you encounter injustice in the world. It’s the silent frustration you feel in the monotony of life and the dissatisfaction lying deep in your soul with your routine existence. 

You know that there is a wrong you were born to make right … but you just have no idea what to do about it. 

Are You Ready?

You want to know the injustice you are called to combat. You deeply yearn to understand how God has uniquely equipped you to change the world. You are ready and hungry to discover how you can make impact in the world. 

However, sometimes we can become so consumed with discovering our passion that we never actually do anything about the injustice invading our world. 

We wait. We wait for a prompting, a whisper, a sign or a message to appear. We wait for a magical moment, when the ambient pad begins to play, the fog appears and a deep voice proclaims how you were born to change the world.

Or, maybe, we’re just waiting because it’s easier to use our lack of clarity as an excuse rather than taking action and doing something.

There is a wrong you were born to make right. And what if God has already given you everything you need to right those wrongs in the world, live out your passions, fight for justice and create lasting change? What if He is on the edge of His seat watching to see what you are going to do with everything He’s given you … but you’re sitting back waiting on some magical moment that may never happen? 

There is a wrong you were born to make right. And if that’s the case, you owe it to our world to do something about it. 

Discovering Your Passions

I meet with young people every week who ask me the same question, “How do I discover my passion?” They look at me expectantly because I run an organization that empowers young leaders to discover their passions. They expect me to give them a four-step process or a fancy diagram or a detailed action plan. But I don’t. Because that’s not what they need. They need to just DO something. 

The four-step process, strategies and structures are still important, and they do come later. But that’s not where we start.

open doors illustration

Instead, we get off our couches, off our phones, and we do something. Because I believe God is not going to reveal our passions to us as we sit on our couches staring at the TV screen. It probably won’t happen as we’re mindlessly scrolling through social media. We won’t discover our passions as we sit around complaining about our lack of clarity.

It is far more likely that God will reveal your passion to you when your hands are dirty, your hair is messy, your body is tired and your eyes are sparkling. When you’re in the center of the fight, when you’re amid real injustice, when you’re in the mess of real relationships, God will tap you on the shoulder and say, “That was it!” What you just saw, what you just heard, what you just experienced, THAT was the wrong you were born to make right. It will be amid the doing that you discover your passion.

It’s time to do something. 

  • Get involved in the human trafficking crisis.
  • Run a race to raise money for a cause.
  • Spend time investing in the beautiful people at a nursing home in your city.
  • Mentor an at-risk student in your community.
  • Make a meal for a family living under the poverty line in your town.
  • Show up at the same street corner every weekend to form a relationship with the homeless family in your community.
  • Volunteer to invest in individuals with special needs.
  • Show up consistently for a refugee family in your town.
  • Share truth with the middle schooler on your block who is about to give up hope.
  • Sell your stuff and build a well in a third-world country.
  • Open your home to a high school student who lives in a toxic environment.
  • Start a company to provide jobs for the homeless in your area.
  • Visit individuals who find themselves in prison.
  • Advocate for the rights of slaves around the world.
  • Talk to your government about laws that need to change.
  • Choose to walk across the divide and learn from someone who is different than you.
  • Intentionally love a child in the foster care system.
  • Raise money and start a school for girls with no access to education.
  • Start an after-school program for teenagers living in the inner city. 

There is so much exciting and beautiful work to be done and God is inviting us to be a part of what He is doing in the world. So don’t miss it.

There is a wrong you were born to make right. There is a passion God has placed inside of you. You have everything you need to take action.

If you want to go on a journey to craft that passion, to take ownership of your life, to say yes to create impact in the world, then let’s do it together.

Don’t wait. Start now. Take the first step. Because there is simply too much that hangs in the balance.

What hangs in the balance? 

The innocence of young girls who are victims of sex trafficking. The safety of children thrown into a broken foster care system. The existence of orphans starving alone in third-world countries. The dignity of individuals who are told they are less than because of the color of their skin. The safety of families fleeing the crisis in their countries and searching for a place to call home. The lives of teenagers drowning in depression and suicide attempts. The redemption of families caught in a cycle of addiction. The future of girls who will never have access to education because of their gender. The health of a baby born in a country with no access to clean water. The eternities of real people hang in the balance.

open door illustration

This isn’t an if you want, if you have time, extracurricular activity kind of thing. This is a sacrifice all of yourself, risk everything you have, give from the deepest parts of soul, fight with an unwavering tenacity, leave no part of yourself in the safety of comfort kind of thing.

Refuse to back down, to quit or to retreat. Stay on the frontlines of this fight. There is a wrong you were born to make right. So go out and make it right. The greatest adventure of your life can begin today. 

For Further Study

Read:

Visit:

  • Generation Distinct.com/LaunchYourPassion to find out more information and to connect with a Generation Distinct Team Member.
  • @GenerationDistinct: Follow on Instagram and send a DM with the word PASSION and our team will reach out to you! 
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Hannah, founder and CEO of Generation Distinct, speaker, preacher and author has always been wired to abolish cultural complacency, unleash lasting justice and join the wild adventure Jesus invites us all to live. Hannah is also a profile speaker for The Women’s Speaker Collective, host of The Generation Distinct Podcast, Next Generation Director for Leadership Network and host of the Young Leaders Collective on Faithful. Hannah’s latest book, Generation Distinct: Discover the Wrong You Were Born to Make Right was released on September 15, 2020.

This article was originally titled “Equipped” in the May 2022 issue of Peer.

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