I am absolutely convinced that most people don't live out of a place of passion, and are therefore living unsatisfied lives. You can hardly blame them, in an post industrial world, it's much easier to fall in and get by with minimum resistance. There are many obstacles to living out of a place of passion. It's not practical, it's not what people expect of you, it might not make you rich and famous, it's scary and too new agy of an idea. And yet deep inside, most of us feel a deep need to live like that.

I just had lunch with a good friend, a remarkable professional, who was feeling the need to change things because his work, although well paid lacked significance and passion. Very few people even get to that place, as to question the status quo. Because, what if the questioning leads to a need to change things?  Scary.

I had a rough day, so I picked up a book I had started reading a few months ago but never finished. It's an obscure book, not a best seller. It was written in the 17th century by a Jesuit priest named Jean Paul de Caussade. The title of this treasure is Abandonment To Divine Providence.

It's a bit wordy and it sounds...well, old. But you will not find any book on reliance on God that is more uplifting and transforming.

Sometimes you read something that helps you get in touch with the deeper recesses of our being. Ian Morgan Cron's book «Jesus, My Father, The CIA and Me: a Memoir...of sorts» is one of those.

I read en excerpt from this book on Donald Miller's blog and ordered it right away.

Sixteen years ago, on this day I became a follower of Jesus. Before that he was a myth or, at best, an old story. On this day sixteen years ago He came to life and became Lord.

How He managed to transform a hyper ambitious, self centered, immoral me into His friend and disciple is, truly, a mystery. But he did.

I am blessed with a healthy, wonderful marriage and  people often ask what is the secret.

The secret, really, is no secret — sacrifice.  But we don't really want to hear that, we want a painless formula, which doesn't exist. There is only one way to make a marriage soar, by laying down your life for your spouse. Here is how it works...