A colleague on a social media site recently was talking about how she felt that her life had nothing in her life apart from her family and her work. Working round both of these things meant that often there was very little time for finding time for herself or discovering things that she enjoyed. It was a sentiment that rang trillions of bells for me.

These shared sentiments are not borne with any resentment, but instead offered a recognition of the stage of life we appear to be at. But they are sentiments that have had me thinking about what it is that is important to me – what is it that I might be passionate about?

Once upon a time I had a varied set of passions. I was a regular at the rugby ground, enjoying watching the FP team from my High School. Many of those who played in the various teams had been people with whom I had been at school, while in the club house there were others I knew through my parents and other people. It wasn’t just club rugby that I enjoyed. Supporting the National team was a keen obsession, and in 1990 I could name every one of the players on the Scotland team.

I’ve always loved music. I constantly sing to myself, and I’m sure I live within a musical as I have a running soundtrack of my life. I’ve sung in a band, in a worship band, and in various musicals. In the late 80s and early 90s I was at almost every Deacon Blue concert, and attended a variety of big music events. I play a variety of instruments in a mediocre fashion.

My faith has been an ever present passion, and perhaps my call to ministry has been the confirmation of that internal passion.

My family and my call are now the mainstays of my life and so I find that there is very little time to be passionate about my own interests. So does that mean I lack passion?

I don’t know that it does, instead I find the possibilities of interest thrown wide open. I am passionate about my husband (although he may not agree) and my children. However that passion has to be tempered with allowing them to find their way in the world and not boring others with their achievements and interests. However through them I encounter varying sports and musical and dance opportunities. We explore new places as they learn about the world in which we live. As a wife and parent I don’t feel subsumed although sometimes I do feel like I am the family cheerleader.

Ministry can be all consuming, and yet I remain passionate about what we seek to do in Christ’s name. Again I can feel like a cheerleader, but this time for a church, as encouragement is offered to others to be willing to share the love of God that they have encountered in their lives. At intervals I have to ask myself about how much I would be involved in a congregation if I were not a minister and I suspect that I would be passionate in a different way.

Through church life I find myself moved to care in various ways from homelessness to fair trade, social justice to alleviation of poverty.

But at this present stage of my life I can think of no one thing that is my particular passion. Instead I like the breadth of my interests and the opportunity that they offer me of encountering more of the world.