A thought by Zig Zigler, from his book, Better Than Good (p. 23). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)
So what is that?
Zig says, "It’s continually simmering beneath the surface, waiting for the right stimulus to cause it to boil over into world-changing action."
He goes on, "I believe inspiration is the fuel of passion. If you think of passion as the flame that burns white hot in the heart of every person, inspiration is the fuel that keeps that flame alive.
"Often I meet people in whom the fire of passion seems to have gone out. You can see it in their eyes—there’s no spark or life! It’s like someone came along and flipped off the passion switch while they weren’t looking. The big mistake is thinking that regaining passion is a passive event—something we just have to wait for until we’re moved once more to become passionate about life. Not so! Passion is a flame that has to be fed in order to keep it burning bright. And inspiration is the fuel that keeps the fire alive."
He asks, "Who is responsible for feeding inspiration to the flame of passion? You are! And if you don’t, trust me—passion will, over time, become a distant and only occasional visitor to the house of your heart."
He continues, "Give me this one short paragraph to be scientific. As I understand it, physicists use a law—the Second Law of Thermodynamics —to describe a fully documented bit of reality about our world. Here’s the law: in a closed system, entropy (disorder) increases. That means that the amount of thermal energy available to do work decreases. Energy decreases, disorder increases. Now, in Texas terminology we’d say it this way: stuff wears out, breaks, and runs down unless you constantly do something to keep it in working order. Without injecting new energy into the situation, things naturally go from a state of repair to a state of disrepair. (Leave a car in an open field and come back and check on it in ten years. It doesn’t get better; it gets worse.)
"Now, that law applies not only to 'stuff' but human beings. The ultimate expression of that law is that, regardless of how many vitamins and nutrients we pump into ourselves in old age, we die physically. But we also die spiritually and emotionally if we don’t constantly inject and invest new energy into our spiritual life. Passion will die without constant injections of new inspiration. And you and I are responsible for inspiring ourselves; we are responsible for keeping the flames of passion burning strong."
He then says, "There’s a verse in the Bible that speaks directly to this issue. The apostle Paul had a young pastor-protégé named Timothy, to whom he wrote a couple of letters of advice and instruction. Timothy may have had a passive kind of temperament as a young man based on these two verses Paul wrote to him: 'And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline' (2 Timothy 1:6–7).
"I have been taught by those who know the original Greek language of the New Testament that the word kindle is in the present tense—meaning “keep on kindling.” It’s not a once-in-a-lifetime event. Rather, it’s a lifelong responsibility for us to stir up and rekindle the gifts God has given us. We’re not to be timid about it either. We’re to be proactive about the passions, the dreams, the desires we believe God has put in our heart. For Timothy, it was being a pastor. For me, it’s being a public speaker. And for you, it’s . . . (you fill in the blank)."
So, will you keep on kindling the passions, the dreams, the desires that God has put in your heart? Will you"
Yes, yes!
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