What Is Your Passion Really Costing You?

It’s one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen in someone’s house. In fact, the only other time I saw a similar item was on a visit to the New York Historical Society Museum in Manhattan.

As I walked into my brother-in-law Frank’s family room, my eyes were drawn to a thirty-inch-long model of a steam locomotive and coal car. “What in the world is that?” I asked.

“It’s a working model of Baldwin 0-6-0 locomotive my grandfather built in 1935. He machined all the parts himself, and it’s fully functional. He used to have a track in his yard that it would run on. The thing is made of brass and steel, and it weighs about 45 pounds. He made a total of five locomotives over a period of forty years, all of them of different models. This was his first, and it’s actually the simplest of the five.”

“That’s crazy!” I said. “I can’t believe anyone could make one if these, let along five! How did you end up with it?”

“When my grandfather died in 1985, my grandmother gave it to me . . . because she hated it.”

“What!?” I exclaimed. “It’s amazing! How could she hate something so awesome?”

“Well,” he said, “most weekends, my grandfather would drive from his home in Southern Pines, NC to nearby Aberdeen to check and double-check his measurements so he could build exact scaled-down replica. Instead of being a real dad to his kids, he spent hours and hours and hours working on those locomotives Because of her husband’s neglect, my grandmother wanted nothing to do with any of them after he died, so I got this one.”

What a story! As an uniformed outsider, I was incredibly impressed by the locomotive’s beauty, craftsmanship and precision. I could no more produce something like that than I could run a 100-mile ultramarathon. Little did I know the dark side of Frank’s grandfather’s achievement.

We hear a lot these days about “following your passions,” and the word “passionate” shows up on many resumes. I’m in no way suggesting that you should not be fully committed to what you do. God intends you to live life to the max, and that includes thrusting yourself headlong into his calling on your life.

High achievers are driven to excellence, and that’s wonderful, as long as their activities don’t suck up the rest of their lives. In the world of entrepreneurship and startups, founders must dedicate countless hours trying to prevent their dream from ending up in an ash heap. There may be seasons that require intense focus, but if those periods merge into each other and last year after year, you just may live to regret it.

In the case of Frank’s grandfather, his “passion” lasted four decades, and, in his wife’s eyes, it cost him much more than the steel and brass used to fabricate his masterpieces.

I’m reminded of Jesus’ words in Luke 9:25:  “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” Although the immediate context refer to Jesus’ requirement to follow him completely, I think one aspect of doing that is by living a balanced life that honors Jesus and appropriately prioritizes your responsibilities, not allowing your pet interests to overshadow what really matters.

What do you think?