"The Christian faith hasn't been very helpful in this arena over the past few hundred years. Our incessant focus on the elimination of sin has more than contributed to the problem of passionless living. ... We've been taught that God's solution to restraining our passions is His commands. The result has been a Christian religion focused on rules, rituals and obligations. In this regard Christianity as a religion is essentially no different or better than the other major religions.
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The goal of the Christian journey cannot be the elimination of desire and passion since the Scriptures teach that God created us in His image and likeness, and part of this reflection of God is a heart designed for passionate living. ... He desires that we live passionate lives in Him. Rather than eliminate our passions, He intends to overwhelm them with new passions. The furnace of our passions is our character, and while evil character burns hot for destructive passions that consume and destroy, the character of God ignites passion for what is good and true. Our quest is to have God's character formed in us so that His passions might burn in us."
Erwin McManus, Uprising.
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