If You're Passionate and You Know It. . .

This is the third post on my notes from Doug Wilson's book Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life. See the links below to read the first two.

One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes is this one: "God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than He is of any other slacker."

Wilson expands on this idea in Wordsmithy, encouraging aspiring writers to go out and learn. Learn about writing, learn about unfamiliar subjects, and learn about what you're passionate about. Some memorable passages:

• "With all your getting, get wisdom."
• "Writing is a vocation, and there is a body of professional literature out there - which is uneven in quality, just like every other kind of book. Read a lot of it anyway."
• "If you are really interested in a subject, you will be fascinated by it, and when you are fascinated by it, you will be going back to your workbench of words constantly, looking for ways to describe this thing that has your attention."

Whatever it is you want, whatever you might be chasing, you simply cannot skip the step of patiently sitting down, slowing down, and digging into its inner most recesses, analyzing what it is and why it's good. You might know it's good, and you might love it, but you don't know everything there is to know about it. Frankly, if you're not excited about learning more, about digging in, you probably don't want it that bad anyway. Whether you're a "good student" or not, if you want it or love it, you've got to be intellectual.

There are some really talented, knowledgeable people out there writing, speaking, and maybe even tweeting about what it is you want. Go find them. There's going to be some real idiots out there as well, people who know less than you, whose writing or speaking is below average and who you can't believe are getting paid to talk about something you could do so much better talking about. Listen to them, too. Even the foolish, the braggarts, and the boring have something to offer you. Go get it. Be an expert.

If you love it, you'll learn it. Even when it's hard. If you won't, maybe you're just kidding yourself about this "passion" that you have.

A note to all Christians: this includes Christ. The grace of God doesn't give you a free pass on studying God. You will be saved by faith through grace, but why would you want to stop there? Will your joy not increase, the more you study God? Is there any chance you will ever know all there is to know about our Infinite Lord?

2 Peter is full of this truth:

• "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (1:2)
• His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him. . ." (1:3)
• "And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it."
• "Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking." (3:1)

The equation is simple: Be passionate. Gain wisdom. Increase your passion. Share. Act. Repeat.



Note: The first two posts in this series were "Live Wide, Live Well," and "Skip the Sprint; Start the Hike."