Motivation

 

There are some moments where I struggle to find motivation…and there are other moments where motivation seems to run in my veins.  In fact, even within the span of a few hours the dynamics of motivation can change.  This is not a new phenomenon.  Even as a child the degrees of my motivation would ebb and flow like the tides.

“Ryan! Clean up your toys in the living room!” My mother snipped.

“But I’m still going to play with them!” I retorted. 

“They have been laying there for three days!”

“That’s ‘cuz GI Joe is currently a prisoner of war in Siberia and he hasn’t found a way to escape yet!”

“I am pretty sure if he doesn’t find a way out of his cell now, he is going to find himself drawn upward into the nether regions of Hoover’s Wind Tunnel!”

“I’ll do it in a little bit, I’m picking up the chocolate chips I spilled all over the kitchen floor.”

WWWHHHIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRR!!!!

“No! Mom wait! I’ll pick it up!”

Fear is certainly a powerful motivator.  We are motivated out of fear of discipline, fear of loss of acceptance, fear of retaliation, fear of letting others down, fear of getting fired, fear of failure and many other facets.  As strongly as fear can motivate us, I have become convinced that love is an even more powerful motivator.  

Now when my mom calls me up to come over and lift something heavy or shingle a roof, I don’t say “yes” out of fear of her vacuuming up GI Joe, I say “sure…I’ll send your grandson Isaac right over.”

I was struck this week when I was reading Matthew 24:14, and Matthew 28:18-20. Here we find what is known as the “Great Commission.”  It is the moment that Jesus gives the instructions to the church as to what our overriding role is to be.  We can certainly receive this as a command, since Jesus himself is laying the burden to believers to fulfill this obligation. 

As I contemplate, I consider the question, “what makes me choose to obey this instruction”?  Is it solely that I am looking for Jesus’ approval? Certainly, I want Jesus’ approval, but honestly, that is not what connects with the deepest part of my soul.  Is it fear of consequences from God? If I am honest, there is part of me that wrestles with that.  My conclusion is that the great compelling for the commission comes from the deep love that God has for us and effectively our love for Him as found in 1 John 4:10, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” When I begin to see all that Jesus has done for me, I want to do all that he asks me to do for Him.

May we come to be compelled to share the abundant love of God to others because of his abundant love for us!