As an art major for my first two years of college, I spent a lot of time with people who today are still making a living creating the art that they have always been passionate about. 

We spent hours, talking in art studios or under the stars for an art retreat camping trip, contemplating our “passion” and how we would only feel satisfied if we were passionate about what we did in our professional lives.

With this mindset, figuring out if I was in the right major was quite a daunting task. What if I chose the wrong thing or my interests changed or I wasn’t good enough at this thing I was passionate about? I ultimately did make some of those realizations and decided that my preferred art medium was actually words. Photography has always been something I love and that I have been able to use even this summer, snapping pictures of separated sibling in foster care, but it has not ended up being how I have made any money in my life.

I still believe that having things that we are passionate about is important. I look around and see so many people who seem to have no life left in them, doing the day to day with life seeming to pass them by. Hey, that is me a lot of days too, if I am going to be honest. I feel so fortunate that I have been able to do things in my professional life that I am truly passionate about—serving as an English teacher internationally, teaching college writing, leading faith formation programs, and creating programming for siblings separated in foster care. While I was making my two-foot-tall Greek vessel made from clay coils over 20 years ago, I would not have imagined the things that I would one day be passionate about. But my views have shifted even as I do in fact have the opportunity to do things I am passionate about.

The problem with my former view is that it was about what I wanted. What made me happy. What made me satisfied. And even as I said that I was seeking what God had for my life, there was so much of ME in it. 

Don’t get me wrong. We are created by God. We are loved by God and he cares about us individually and the lives that we lead. But so many times, even when we say the right things and look like we are doing things for God, it can be all about us. 

1 Peter 4:11 says, “Whoever preaches, let it be with the words of God; whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” 

Our lives have the opportunity to glorify God or to glorify ourselves. 

I will be the first to admit how tempting it is to want the attention to be on ourselves. But when I stop and think about the incomprehensible fact that the God who created the universe and holds all things in his hands allows his glory to shine through imperfect me, I am blown away. 

Getting a little attention can be nice. But being a part of something so much greater than myself makes any of my accolades pale in comparison. 

I sometimes wonder how people who are famous and have everything they could possibly want fall into depression and addiction and sometimes even take their own life. Obviously, mental health plays a big part in that. But fame and fortune can bring temporal happiness, but without connection and meaning, they can’t fill our souls.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 reminds us, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” 

May I never forget that my life was purchased for a price. That only in laying down myself can God live through me and do more than I could ever do with my own limited resources. 

What freedom this brings. 

When I feel tired and hopeless and the task before me seems impossible, it is precisely in that moment that God can use me most fully. I don’t have to hold the weight of the world on my shoulders. God longs for me to depend on him and in my weakness, his un-surpassing strength can do incredible things far beyond the dreams I ever had for myself. 

I would rather be a vessel of clay overflowing with the presence of God, than a vessel of gold that is empty inside. 

I can be passionate about whatever task is before me, even those that are urbane or unpleasant because I know the One who can do anything through me if I seek his glory and not my own. 

Kasey Carty Jordan is a former missionary and resides in Monticello.