Do you have any regrets? I try not to dwell on the past; I call to mind the advice of the famous baseball pitcher Satchel Paige: “Don’t look back; someone might be gaining on you.” Nonetheless, I acknowledge two regrets. The first is that I didn’t spend a year after college traveling the world.

The second regret is that I didn’t start to give any thought to what I was passionate about until I was in my 40’s. The other side of the coin is that I am grateful that I started thinking about passion in my 40’s rather than my 60’s, 70’s or never.

I am passionate about family and about vulnerable children around the world – society’s marginalized; Jesus’s “the least of these.” (Matthew 25:40)

In the movie “Braveheart”, Mel Gibson screams one word before he dies – “freedom”. If you were to scream one word (a noun, not a name!) at the end of your life, what would it be? For me, it would be “passion”.

Besides figuring out what we are passionate about, I think we are also called to live passionately. What does this look like? It involves risk – it means purposely placing yourself in situations that aren’t always comfortable; that cause you to reach beyond yourself.

Tim McGraw’s song encourages us to “Live Like You’re Dying”. Good advice, since it applies to all of us. Our days are numbered. (Psalm 90:12) Maybe in order to live passionately, the question to be asked is: How do you want to die ? I want to die broke, having just given away my last dollar. I hope to die with no regrets. I want to die with scars and bruises because I went into uncomfortable places. I want to collapse at the finish line, with no gas left in the tank.