Passionate But Fickle
As I was scrolling Instagram the other day, as I will reluctantly admit I do all to often, I came across a song by one of those up and coming artists trying to make it big on social media. It was a song called Chronically Cautious by Braden Bales.
Now I know exactly nothing about Braden as a person or his lifestyle so please don't take this post as an endorsement of everything he may or may not stand for, but as I was listening to the amazingly catchy ear worm of a song I heard a phrase that stuck with me long after the song had faded. The song generally was about being to cautious to take risks and doubting if we really want the things we are not willing to risk everything for, however, the phrase that stuck with me was the title of this piece and it stuck with me because in one form or another I have heard this sentiment in other places.
"I am passionate but fickle"
Ecclesiastes 1:9 says:
"What has been done is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun."
The premise of this verse is that no matter how unique and different we think we are the truth is that everything has been done before, and there is nothing truly different in this world. Every generation wants to believe that the one before could never understand them, and will say things like "its a different time now", but the reality is that every generation struggles through the same things. The specifics change (who, what, or where), but the general needs we struggle against are all the same.
This is why that phrase stuck with me so long. The idea of someone crying out in this generation about how they were "passionate but fickle" reminded me of another song from my youth. It was an old hymn that expressed the same sentiment from a christian perspective.
"Prone to wander, Lord I Feel it. Prone to leave the God I Love."
What is that phrase if not a crying out to God from an older generation speaking to the reality of having passion for God, but a fickle heart for sin.
Its amazing that the song Come Thou Fount, and Chronically Cautious could be across many generations crying out to the same struggle of being passionate for something but not giving it our focus and attention.
Even more amazing is that the writer of most of the new testament expressed the very same feeling in one of his most celebrated writings.
"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Here in Romans 7:15-20 Paul expresses the same heart that both of these song writers have that he has a passion/desire/love for one thing (God/Righteousness) but the fickle heart of sin keeps pulling him to do other things.
Generations beyond generations struggling with the same issue that as people we are "passionate but fickle" and when it comes to us as believers we are, hopefully, passionate about our walk with God, but our fickle flesh continues to pull us away from Him.
How then do we solve this problem? How do we go from "passionate but fickle" believers to those who put aside all else?
Jesus gives us the answer in Luke 9:23-24:
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."
Every day we must wake up and make the decision to passionately follow after Him. Every day we must put off the old flesh and put on the whole armor of God (Eph) to be ready for the battle. Playing it safe and being half in will only lead to our death. In God it is all....or nothing.
