The Mystery of God's Word

I don't know about you, but I want to follow my passions. My passions are things I am good at, I enjoy doing, and feel comfortable with. However, our small group had an interesting discussion last night about our passions.

Taking an idea from the sermon on Sunday, it was brought up that God does not usually put us in a place where our passions lie because He takes us outside of our comfort zone to grow us. The example cited was Paul, who definitely had a passion for ministering to his own people, the Jews. In fact, Paul even explains in Acts that he seemed to be the obvious choice to change the Jew's hearts since he was such a strong member of the Jewish community and his former persecution of Christians was well known. Yet God takes him away from this passion (the Jews) and has him trekking across the globe in search of Gentiles to convert.

This idea is pretty much the complete opposite of what I have ever been taught/thought/believed. God gives us desires (aka passions), so why would he not want us to be able to pursue those for his Kingdom? Do you have a passion for healing others? Become a doctor. A passion for children? Work with kids. A passion for justice? Maybe law is for you. You get the point. I remember my youth pastor explaining to us that following God's will is not as complicated as many pretend it to be. He said there are many possibilities you could take and still stay in God's will. It's not as if there is one path and if you take the wrong turn you are like the navigator on the log going down Niagara Falls. As long as you stay within God's moral will, you are OK. Thus, following your passions would/should enable you to stay within God's will.

On the way home Jon and I were trying to think of Bible characters whom God allowed to pursue their passions, but I kept saying, "Oh, but then such and such happened..." to disprove my point. What am I missing here? Can both be right? Why has this rocked me to the core? It's almost like people are saying if life is good, you can't be in God's will. However, if life is hard then "woo hoo," you are following God's plan. (In that case, I can definitely say I am soooo following God's plan for me!)

If you have any insights/feelings/beliefs about this topic, I'd love to hear it!