Truly Passionate!

I was a fan of Steve Irwin, the “Croc Hunter”! Well, at least I used to be. I even had a pretty decent impersonation of him. At least, my parents thought it was pretty good. I hadn’t watched him in the last few years. I think the shock factor of most of his antics had pretty well worn off. I remember watching his show for the first time as a college student. My roommates and I would sit around our den watching, laughing, and working on our impersonations. We had a pretty active social life! Animal Planet had picked up his show and he was gaining popularity.

I was definitely shocked to hear of his death and the freak nature of it. I don’t know if Steve knew Jesus or not. I can't say I had ever heard him say or do anything that would offend God. As far as I could tell, he seemed to be a really great guy. But, being a “great guy” doesn’t really count in the end. I can only hope at some point in his life he made the decision to give his heart to Jesus.

What I do know about Steve Irwin is he was incredibly passionate about his calling. I remember he often said, “The reason I am on this earth is to save animals. That is my passion and my calling!” It’s pretty obvious to us he was extremely passionate about this. He often put his life at risk to get our attention. I have to confess, his passion convicts me – not the conviction that makes me want to go pick up snakes and play with crocs. But, the conviction that causes me to seriously “check my passions”. Where are my passions today? Are they in the temporal and purposeless things of life? Or, are they in intimately knowing Jesus and making Him know to our dying world? It's so easy to claim the latter, but to actually live that out day to day, moment by moment requires our lives! And I know it's worth it!!