The first new Pizza Hut arrived in our town a few months ago. Being a former employee and a softy for the deep-dish, we found ourselves checking it out a few weeks ago. Heidi and I had an interesting conversation after we saw this advertisement on the interior wall of the Pizza Hut dining area:
"Passion." "Inspired." Pizza Hut cooks are passionate about making their pizzas. Pizza Hut cooks are inspired to make something excellent. They are not just experts apparently, they feel something deep down when they make their pizzas. Of course, it is just a silly advertisement that probably only lives in the thoughts of some marketing executive. That aside, the interesting part for me is why does the advertisement see those words as particularly powerful? Why "passionate?" Why "inspired?" Why not say our cooks have thoroughly memorized all the best recipes for perfect pizza? Why not our chefs perfectly follow all the spec-chart regulations for great pizza-making?
The answer is simple. Because that is only half as good as someone who is actually passionate about what they do and what they create. Someone who is passionate about what they do cares about the product they are making. The person who has merely memorized spec-charts, does not necessarily care about the product he makes. Pizza-making only has instrumental value to him. He is actually passionate about something else (impressing the boss, keeping a pay-check to do more enjoyable activities, etc.). Pizza-making only helps him, for the time being, accomplish other things that he is truly passionate about.
If the highest display of dedication to pizza-making involves passion, inspiration, and other deeply felt affections, then would it really be that different for measuring one's dedication to anything? Would someone's dedication to a marriage or to a sports team or to a country be complete if they don't genuinely feel anything for it? If they just simply do all the activities normally associated with it, and lets even say they do it with an unwavering consistency, does that sufficiently express the highest level of dedication? Without any genuine feeling, it would seem not.
Knowing this, we were forced to ask: why then do most religious systems say the highest display of dedication to God is not something we
feel, but the collection of things we
do? What are the typical reasons we think that Mother Theresa, for example, or the Dalai Lama, or the Ayatollah of Iran might demonstrate some of the highest levels of dedication to God? I suppose we would say something like their fasting, their self-sacrifice, the hours of meditation, their memorizing large sections of holy books, or how meticulously they follow their moral codes, etc.
Of course, this type of dedication might
show a true deep heart-felt passion for God. But can you do all these things and not actually care about God in any ultimate sense? The answer of course is yes. In the same way a cook who merely follows the spec-chart rules because he is deeply passionate about something else (like saving for a new dirt-bike). It is actually quite astounding the type of things we commit ourselves to, in hope that it leads to something else entirely. And if this is the case about religion, then it would seem most religious systems (and even many religious people) have missed the main ingredient of true dedication: Cultivating a genuine passion for God himself.
It reminds me again how unique Jesus' statement is that the greatest commandment (as well as the second greatest) is actually a
feeling. (Matt 22:37-40). Every other religious task and commitment only finds its meaning when it is orbiting around genuine love and passion for God, and others.
