The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Find Your Passion in the Church

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

Do you have a passion? Most of us have something we are passionate about. But how often do you think about how to use that passion for God’s glory or in service to the Church? Today, Jeff talks about how we can use our passions to glorify God and serve others. Snippet from the Show God wants to work through our passions. He wants to use our passions to serve others and to glorify him. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 315, Finding Your Passion in the Church. And thank you for joining me again. So good to be with you every single week. I come to the table with something that I feel very strong about it. I want to share with you. You come together and with me and we both learn together. I get feedback from you. I love this relationship and I'm so glad that we have the technology where we can put together a weekly, a weekly meetup, if you will. And then when I meet you at your church, you're at a conference, wow, it's so good. It's so good. So we are the body of Christ and I'm your neighbor. And together, God has given us the responsibility of

sharing the good news around the world and lifting Jesus up, giving him glory, and to exist in the midst of this church, which is, it's not just an organization, it's a family. It is, it is something other than what we are used to with the Lions Club or the Optimus Club or, you know, other type of civic groups that get together. This is a living organism. This is a temple built out of human stones, if you will. and there's so many needs and there's so many things that the Lord wants to do with his body, and there's so many opportunities as well. But a lot of people are wondering, where's my place in that? Where is my place in the church?

And is the thing that I'm passionate about, is that even have a place in the church? Because I hear a lot of teachers and evangelists and singers and so forth, but I don't do any of that. I don't teach. I don't preach. I don't sing. I don't write poetry or anything else. I'm me. But I want to know, Jeff, is there a place for me in the church? And the answer is, absolutely. Absolutely. We're going to talk about finding your passion in the church today. And, you know, I think that it would be so sad to live your whole life and not know what you're passionate about or how your life could

contribute to the work of God. I think that that would be sad. And I think that that would be sad. And I deep down inside of every single one of us, there is this passion. There is this desire and need and this drawing to want to be used, to be an important part of whatever God is doing. Getting back to an old analogy that I've used for years, I don't want to be sitting in the stands. I want to be on the field too. I don't want to be just the equipment manager. I want to be on the field playing. And every one of us can. Every one of us has a place on the field. Every one of us has a position. Say, if you want the show notes, go ahead and send me a text. My name, Jeff Kaven's one word, and you can text it to the number 3377. That's 3377, and we'll get you on the list. You'll get the show notes.

Lots of good stuff. Good quotes, good references from the Bible, and the catechism. You know, Romans chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12 both of them 12s both talk about gifts in the church the God gives particular gifts that work in the church and that's that's true there are many gifts today and some people have a gift for exhortation for organization, prophecy and so forth but today I would like to talk about the gift of you and your passion and what what you are really on fire about or discovering what your passion is. I could put it that way. What is your passion?

You know, people often say, I haven't found my place in the church, or I haven't found out where I fit in my local parish, or I don't really know what my passion is. I've never thought of myself as being a person who has a particular passion. Sure, there's things I like to do and everything, but I'm quite positive that none of those would be used in the church. but you just never know they might be there's a scripture i'll give this to you it's proverbs 226 and i've always loved this scripture because years ago when i was a pastor outside of the church

people would come up to me and ask about their children growing up and they would they would say well i'm familiar with that scripture that says train up a child in the way he should go and even when he's old he will not depart from it and they they would interpret that as i'm going to train up a child the way they should go. And if they do, if they train them up that way, when they grow old, they're not going to depart. But it doesn't actually mean that. In the languages of the Hebrew people, train up a child in the way he is going. Train up a child in the way she is going. Now, that's assuming that's a holy and God-fearing direction, right? Not just, no, she wants to be, you know, something unsavory. Well, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to, we're

train her up that way. No, no, I weren't talking about that. Train up a child in the way that they are going and even when they grow old, they'll not depart from it. Now, the classic understanding of that is that parents are observers. They're looking at this little bundle of DNA. They're looking at this little bundle of joy and potential. I always heard that. Jeff, you've got potential. I don't know if I ever reached it, but they said, you got it. I got it. I have potential. And this little bundle of DNA that's grown into a beautiful person created in the image and likeness of God, that person is a gift. And that person is an unrepeatable human being created in the image and likeness of God. And the parents will watch the way this child is going. What is this child? Is this child a

mathematician? Is this child a musician, a dancer? Is this a child an engineer, a doctor? Is this child a writer of classics. Is this child a nurturer of children and other people? There's just so many ways that a human could go. We're all the same in terms of two eyes and a mouth and a nose and hair and fingers and feet and so forth, knees, elbows. But every one of them, every person's a little bit different and they all have a beautiful reflection from the father. And to it really is something quite extraordinary in the body of Christ. When you look at this diversified group of people, and yet we do have things that are in common. So that's a scripture I want to give you, Proverbs 226, train up a child in the way he should go, and when they grow old,

they will not depart from it. And that's really true. If you start to notice the way your child is going, you notice the gifts, that proclivity, that passion for something in particular, you start training them up in that way. You give them the opportunity. You give them the things that are needed to cultivate the gifts that are in their life or the things that make their heart just do backflips. It gets them so excited. Now, this is a very common question that I receive an email from college students who are graduating in the next year or so from, whether it's Franciscan University, Thomas Aquinas, whatever school it might be, they write letters and say, well, I want to I want to ask your advice as to how I can do fill in the blank or I need help in discovering my

passion and what that might be. And one of the questions that I get quite a bit is actually people who want to do what I'm doing, you know, and that is I'm a speaker, I'm a teacher. I am involved in radio, television, podcasting like this, writing books. Basically, I use a lot of different ways of communicating the same thing. And so I'm a communicator. I communicate the faith. I try to understand people. I try to understand the faith.

I try to find ways of communicating it so that it makes sense for the broadest audience. That's what I try to do. And what people ask me about is, well, how can they do that? And the answer is, well, I'm not sure, to be honest, because you're not me. I can tell you what I did, but I don't think you want to duplicate it because it all starts off by wetting your bed every day growing up. Let's start right there, shall we? No, I didn't think you want it to be me. No, you need it.

You don't want to be me. Trust me. You want to be you. And the idea is you find out who you are. You find out what God has called you to do. So people will ask this question. You know, help me out, help me out to discover, you know, I want to be a writer. They'll say, I want to be a writer.

I'm going to be a writer. Okay. So then I'll get into a dialogue with them and ask, you know, what do you want to do? They say, well, I'm going to be a writer like you. And then I ask the next question, what do you want to write about? And it's just an honest question. What do you want to write about? I don't know if you're called to be a writer or not, but let's have this dialogue.

Let's have this discussion. Let's work some things out. What do you want to write about? And you know what I get usually? I don't know. Oh, you don't know what you want to write about. Really? You don't know what you want to write about.

But you want to be a writer, but you don't know what you want to write about. They'll say, well, I just know I want to write. Just want to write. And then my next question is, pretty logical. What have you written? Well, nothing really. I'm still deciding on what I will, what I'll write about. Now, this exercise, I'm not kidding you, this exercise goes on.

I'm not putting anybody down for it. I think it's mildly humorous because I've been there myself. and I'll tell you what I think is happening in the hearts and minds of people who enter into this dialogue here because you just might be a writer, but there might be some other things holding you back or you just might be a speaker, a teacher,

whatever, radio, television, pilgrimage guide, whatever it might be. Those are all the things I do. I don't know how to do anything else. But, well, I do, I do know how to do. I do, I can mow the lawn. There's a gift. But they ask the question,

And how do I become a writer? Well, what do you want to write? I don't know. Do you have you written anything? No. Well, what makes you think you want to be a writer then? And the first thing that I would say to them is that there is a difference between passion about something and a romantic notion.

There's something different about a passion for something and romantic notion. now passion and romantic notion can be applied to any discipline in life whether it is being a cop whether it's being a teacher whether it's a chemist whether it is an astrophysicist like me or a photographer or an athlete a musician a mathematician a mom a dad whatever it is whatever it is and there is a romantic notion which stirs interest in something maybe i remember this i remember this actually very clearly. And then, to be honest, I think I was right down the middle of the plate on this one. I remember back in the 70s going to watch the movie, All the President's Men. It's about Watergate. And when I came out of that movie, I thought to myself, I'm going to be

a journalist. I'm going to be a reporter. I want to be a journalist. I want to be a reporter. I had never thought of it before then. But that movie gave it. me a picture of what my life could be like. I'm going to be an investigative reporter. It's going to be so cool, travel and interviewing, you know, mystery, intrigue, and gotcha, and all that type of thing. And the truth of the matter was, I didn't have any passion for that whatsoever, really, but I had this romantic notion of what a reporter's life would be like. And so I had a romantic notions stirred up inside of me. And so you may have a romantic notion of something stirring up inside of you.

It could be writing, could be math. Maybe you think that, you know, you're a genius like Einstein. Sports, who knows? Maybe you are Lou Gehrig. I don't know. An artist. You're the next Van Gogh. Physics.

All of these things. And you can see yourself doing it or you have seen someone else who is passionate about it. and your curiosity is peaking now. An example, you watch a TV show about redesigning homes, and there's tons of them out there right now. Trust me, I know. It's hosted by, let's say it's hosted by a married couple.

It's not new. There's those. A married couple who have a lot of fun together on the show. They travel, they go looking for fabric, they laugh, and try foods, and they end up having a big wine dinner. It's just great. And you tell your friends, I would love to do that, you know, redesign homes. I can see myself doing that.

That would be a lot of fun. And so, well, let's look at this. You could see yourself working on a show with your spouse, redesigning homes. But you have never even thought about redesigning homes before. It's never even been an interest of yours. And if it came up, you dismissed it. You weren't even really interested. But in this show that you're watching, I can see myself doing that.

It turns out that what caught your attention was the interplay between the man and his wife. And that's what interested you, working together with your spouse. There were no kids around. All the bills were paid. And you were meeting exciting people. And, hey, you were on TV. So there's a difference between this romantic notion and the passion. Now, passion has already experienced the romantic notion in some way and has not.

now started to act on it. You might have had some kind of romantic notion about your own television show of redesigning homes with your spouse, but that has grown into a passion. You're not just watching every show on it. You're coming up with ideas on how to redesign your home. You're working with all the materials that they do. You go and you shop. You start with a room in your house, and then you want to do the next one. Your cousin says, could you do that in our living room? Absolutely. I would love to. I love doing this. And so your passion has already experienced the romantic notion in some way and now starts to act on it.

Passion grabs your heart and occupies your time and your money and your relationships. That's what passion does. Passion is what others notice about you. Man, you're passionate about this. Man, you're passionate about baseball. My sister is so passionate about rock collecting. Everyone is rock collecting. Yeah, you ought to see what she does.

what she makes jewelry out of it and she's doing it night and day and she sells it all over the world oh i could never do that why i have no passion from rocks i have no passion for jewelry so i can think of several friends of mine that are passionate about golfing right now i have to admit i am not interested in golfing in the least kicking that little ball around that course you call it and i don't even have any bats to do this with or clubs you're you're hitting that ball all around that course with small talk in between. And as I see that, I'm thinking to myself, I would go crazy because I could have read half a book during that time. Now, a passion has enough energy to say, this is an important point, passion has enough energy to say no to the

things that are not in your wheelhouse. And this is where people get mixed up at times and messed up, I should say, derailed, is that they start saying yes to a lot of little things that are not in their interest, that's not their wheelhouse, and before you know it, they're doing a lot of mediocre things, and they're not tending to the passion that's really in their heart. But it's the passion that separates you from people who have a romantic notion about it. I can't tell you the number of people who came to me, honestly, I'm not kidding about this, and they said their biggest problem was figuring out where they were going to do their doctorate.

Now you say, well, that could be a problem, Jeff, for someone, not in their first. freshman year of college. Didn't even know what they were really going to land on completely, but their problem was their doctorate because they already had in their mind walking around the campus of Yale or Harvard or MIT. And they weren't in the moment at the time. They weren't passionate about what they were doing. They were passionate about something they saw way out there in the future. So those are a couple of points there. One is the romantic notion stirs the interest. Passion has already experienced the romantic notion and is now starting to act on it. And three, you will not find your passion and develop it as long as you are

captivated by your phone and senseless data and senseless apps. I promise you because you need time to grow and hone your passion. I promise you this because all the people who have become passionate and really good, really do a good job at what they do, whether it's art or math or whatever it is. Trust me, they do not screw around in their phone. They are out there doing the passion. They are out there doing that work recipe after recipe after recipe cooking and cooking and cooking, going to cooking shows, looking up new cookbooks that are coming out, studying the history of certain chefs like chef John Fulse in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the finest Cajun chef in the world he did not learn chef false did not learn his passion in the phone he learned it

at the feet of a black woman in the bayou that's where he learned it you ever go down there go to revolution his restaurant on bourbon street tell him jeff sent you if i get enough of you i might even get a free meal i don't know we'll try it out i have a passion for free meals i'm kidding But he's a very good friend of mine. You don't have to mention me. But go down there. You want to see what passion does to a chef? Go to Revolution Restaurant on Bourbon Street. It's one of the three greatest restaurants in New Orleans. That's a man of passion. Ooh, I wish I had him here right now. Get him on the phone and let him talk to you about passion. You need to discover what you love and what interests you. You begin to have a desire. You live it. That love is something about your.

uniqueness. Listen, you are unique. You're unrepeatable. You've got DNA spectrum that is unrepeatable. Some people love certain things like making their parish beautiful, while others aren't even remotely interested. And both are good. In fact, you know what? Let's take a break when I come back. I'm going to talk about that person that wants to make their parish beautiful. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz. I am the host of the Catechism in the Year podcast. If you've been following along with us, you know that God's plan for us is a plan of sheer goodness,

that he wants to bring us into a relationship with him. You know that already. One of the ways that God actually brings us into this relationship and keeps us, sustains us in this relationship, is through the sacraments. Again, you might know that already. You might further know that so many of us miss out on the beauty and the power of the sacraments. But, Ascension has an answer to this. Ascension has created two new programs.

One is called Renewed, Your Journey Towards First Reconciliation. The second is, received your journey towards First Holy Communion. We know that our youth, they're our future. And yet at the same time, it's so hard oftentimes to reach them with this incredible news of God's love for them in reconciliation, God's love for them in the Eucharist. If you want to check out Ascension's new program, Renewed Your Journey Towards First Reconciliation and Received Your Journey Towards First Communion, go to ascensionpress.com and sign up.

for a free preview. Okay, welcome back. I just mentioned before the break about making your parish beautiful, and I want to bring that up in a second here because there's a lot of you who are master designers. You have a gift par excellence when it comes to hospitality. Way better than me. And one thing that helps is to get back to your childhood. I wanted to insert this first.

Get back to your childhood and ask yourself, what interested you when you were a kid? What drew your attention when you were seven? Eight, nine, ten, twelve, fifteen. This doesn't mean that you can't acquire a passion for something as an adult. It's just helpful to go back and look. Do you know that in sixth grade, you know, I'm a writer, but in sixth grade, we had an assignment in Mr. Knight's class,

and that assignment was to write a story. And I believe if my memory serves me, it was going to be a five-page story. So I sat down on my desk and I started writing and then I brought it home and I continued writing and then the next day I wrote and wrote and wrote and I think we had like five days to get this done. And it was supposed to be five pages. And I had already at that point developed a fascination with books, especially adventure books like Robinson Caruso. I loved adventure books. And I loved the look of a motorcycle when I was a kid.

And I loved books. Ask me why then? How would I know? How would I know? I just knew this, that working on a car did nothing for me. Nothing. Figure skating did nothing for me. Astrophysics did nothing for me.

And when we were told to write a five-page paper, I wrote a 162-page paper. I couldn't stop. I wanted to write more. It was at that time that I knew that I would be doing something with writing. And at that time, I didn't know any grammar or punctuation. And because I didn't know any grammar or punctuation, do you know what my teacher told my dad? A teacher, parent, day, whatever that's called, told my dad, he said, there's two things Jeff will never do. One, he'll never be a writer.

He doesn't use any punctuation. I can't get him to use punctuation. It ain't working on him. And he said he'll never be a speaker because I had a habit of passing out in front of class. So when I was in junior high, get this, I'll tell you another quick one. When I was in junior high, I got a hold of my first Bible. Wow. Just a few years, I got my first Bible on my confirmation night.

If you got that book, my life on the rock that ascension has, there's a picture of me standing there on my, confirmation day holding a Bible. And just a few years later, I had a conversion experience, and I bought a Bible, and nothing, I mean, nothing, nothing at all could get in the way. I read it and read it and read it. And I couldn't go to my college courses. I sat outside on the floor right outside the door of my college courses reading the Bible. Call me an idiot, okay? I am probably. But I was so consumed with the Bible.

I knew that was my passion. And I knew at 18 that I'd spend the rest of my life with the Bible. I can't explain why. It just grabbed me. It just absolutely grabbed me. And from that point on, I couldn't, couldn't leave it behind. And I had a, I had a passion for writing. I had a passion for motorcycles.

I had a passion for adventure. And over the last eight years, my buddies and I, you'd take Harley Davidson's and ride them around the country, 6,000 miles every other night speaking at a church about the Bible and telling the great adventure story. You see, everything started to come together. and this is just how my life worked out. But once you discover what you are passionate about,

there are two things that you can do at the same time. One, hone your passion, read about it, experience it, hang around people who share your passion. And most importantly, do it, as long as this is right with God, of course, you know. Do it, but do all of this in balance with what? with your vocation. If you're married and you have children, there is no passion worth losing your marriage and your family. You will enjoy your passion when it's balanced with other important areas of your life like God and family. And so that's one thing. Hone your passion

the second. Commit your passion to the Lord and begin to ask how your passion might glorify God and contribute to the body of Christ. Very important point right there. Now here's a couple of examples, and this is what I was getting to on the other side of the break. Here's a couple of examples. Home decorating. What have you noticed about your parish? All of you who are really into home decorating, HGTV on steroids, what have you noticed about your parish? Well, I'll tell you what you noticed about it. You asked yourself to those chairs in the entryway. You know, those ones from the 1970s really, really need to be there because they bug me. And you have ideas on what could be there and what would look better and more inviting and a softer, more loving environment, a welcoming

environment. I didn't think of it. I just walked over there and sat on it. You didn't walk over there and sat on it. You could hardly even bring yourself to touch it. Why? Because you've got a passion for decorating you got a passion for hospitality you got a passion for aesthetics i don't so you can be the person that goes to the pastor and says listen i have a passion for something see that ugly foyer out there let me transform it let me transform that into hg tv foyer and and people will come in here and the first thing they're going to say is whoa is this place nice wow what an inviting area you go into a lot of churches in their entryway and it doesn't look like anybody cared whether you showed up or not they certainly didn't want you to sit down because you

would have had to clean the seat there right that couch so home decorating what about do you love working on cars well one year at the church that I pastor years ago we put together a team of men and women who loved doing what working on cars and we invited people to the church who really needed to have oil and filter changes or light bulb replacements or very minor repairs. And these 15, 20 people that absolutely went ape crazy over, over cars and mechanics, they were like, call me St. Augustine, the mechanic. They had so much fun. They were, they were firing on the pardon the pun all cylinders the participants absolutely love the fellowship and their sense of belonging to the church that was totally enhanced at that point not to mention how many

people were struggling financially and they were helped out in a biggest way i have a friend in medicine dr peter daly in the twin cities orthopedic surgeon big shout out to dr peter lulu daily, he has been a passionate doctor and a passionate Catholic. And what did he do? He has now led and built a medical clinic in Central America. He took the passion that he had in medicine and now he's bringing it to Central America as a Catholic and setting up a mission. Now, none of the people that I mentioned to you here today were Bible teachers. They weren't speakers at conferences. They weren't writers. They weren't on EWTM. They didn't have a podcast. But man, are they on fire? And that's what you need in your life. Look for a need that needs to be filled.

I want to encourage you in that. Look for a need that needs to be filled. And this is what I tell people who are looking to contribute to the new evangelization. Look for niches that need to be filled and are in your passion. Unfortunately, there is such an emphasis on being teachers. and speakers and writers and yay, if you are one, but people who are not called to teach and see, they see others and they conclude that they don't have a special calling in their life because the only special calling you could have is to be a teacher, an evangelist, or a, whatever. Those are the people you know, but not everyone will have such a visible ministry.

What about all the other areas other than teaching, fill those niches? I met with a group of people this last week to talk about R.C. now it's O-C-I-A and spoke of the need to create an amazing experience for those coming into the church. There are people who have a real passion for hospitality. I said to them, I said, my friends, whether you're a man or a woman, people are coming into our church for the first time. You need to make it look inviting. You need to make it look welcoming. Our CIA should not be something you've got to put up with and learn certain things, but it should be an experience and a multi-sensory experience of the body of Christ. Some people who go through OCIA will remember the warmth and the and the camaraderie

that they experienced more than the things they had to learn. Bringing people into the church is part theology and in the Bible, but it also takes a lot of love, a lot of acceptance and kindness expressed through your gift. So that's what I wanted to share with you today. I wanted to just really, really stir you up as to it, finding that gift in your life and that passion in your life and bringing it inside the doors of the church to be a blessing to so many people. And I want to conclude with this. You might conclude and say to yourself, I know what my gift is, but Jeff, there's no way that the church would ever use my gift. Ha, dare you. I double dog dare you. If it's a passion of yours and the Lord would sit down.

with you and enjoy your passion with you trust me there's a place for you you can pray about it talk to your pastor talk to other people talk to other creative people and say here's my idea just maybe there's a way to do it just maybe there's a way to do it let's pray in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit lord jesus we love you today and we thank you for giving us the opportunity to work in your kingdom we are all so different yet we are all on the same page in your kingdom Help us, Lord, to express the diversity among the body of Christ in ways that will honor you and bring new souls into your kingdom. We ask for the prayer and the intercession of our dear mother. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the

fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen. I love you, my friend. God bless you. Can't wait to talk to you next week. Thank you.