Posts Tagged: Matthew 10:42

“Moving You’re Motivation Muscle”

On April 28, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

This morning, my virtual 12-step group had as one of its topics, “How to stay motivated in recovery, especially when you’re not.” It is a wonderful topic about a struggle that I have almost all the time.

Of course, it is not just in the arena of addiction-recovery that I struggle with motivation. This is a battle in every area of my life. Let me list a few areas where I am frequently about as motivated as dirty dishwater:

  • Exercise.
  • Eating wisely.
  • Praying.
  • Really good reading.
  • Taking the dog for a walk.
  • Being nice to my wife.
  • Writing posts for this website.
  • Biblical scholarship.
  • Learning Spanish.
  • Sitting straight.
  • Making gratitude lists.
  • Cutting back on my flow of words.

Now, I hate to say it, but this is only a partial list. This is not an isolated thunderstorm in my life. It is a massive hurricane.

However, I have discovered some things that work when I choose to do them. Here is a much shorter list of good practices:

  • I remind myself that motivation isn’t the same thing as feeling motivated.
  • I act on the 12-step slogan “Move a muscle; change a thought.” If I move, doing something that I don’t want to do, the “want-to” often comes along for the ride. My thinking changes when I’m doing what I need to be doing, rather than the other way around. I refuse to be held hostage by my own lack of motivation.
  • I remind myself that every task, ever relationship is always fresh and new. Years ago, I read a quote from an ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus: “You never step into the same river twice.” He went on the explain that the water has flowed on, and therefore, it is not the same river. Most of us are motivated when things and relationships are new and fresh. What if we realized that things and relationships are always new and fresh?
  • Doing life/recovery/running/eating wisely (along with anything else) with others is a wonderful way to stay motivated. That’s one of the many reasons why 12-step groups are so powerful. I may not be motivated, but chances are excellent that someone else in the group is motivated. Motivation is contagious.
  • I try to remember (with varying degrees of success) that every little good thing I do brings a smile to God. Apparently, according to Malachi 3:16, even mentioning the LORD or speaking the LORD’s name to others gets recorded in his books, and makes us precious in the sight of God. “Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another.”  Jesus said that even a cup of cold water given in his name is rewarded (Matthew 10:42).

I’m sure that there are more things that help with motivation, and I hope to hear from some of you about what works for you. However, I need to warn you: The good practices I’ve listed above only work when I actually do them. And I don’t always do them. Far too often, I marinate in my own lack of motivation.

 I am reminded of the old joke about the tourist who was visiting New York city for the first time. He stopped a stranger, and asked, “How do you get to get Carnegie Hall?”

The New Yorker replied, “Practice! Practice! Practice!”

Motivation is a muscle. You have to regularly exercise it if you want it to grow. Neglect it, and it will atrophy more quickly than you can say, “Nah, I don’t feel like doing that.”

, , , , , ,

“AFFIRMING THE PLEASURE OF GOD”

On February 10, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Years ago, my twelve-step sponsor encouraged me to do daily affirmations.  It is a good discipline.  I usually do my affirmation early in the morning.  It helps to set the tone for my day.  Today’s affirmation is as follows: Today, by God’s grace and with God’s help, I will seek to make it a good day for God.  I will do this by trusting Him, by obeying Him, by enjoying Him, by praising Him, and by being kind to everything and everyone He has made.

One of the many ways that I sometimes go wrong is that I want God to make it a good day for Me.  Some of my worst days have been the result of that attitude.

Putting anyone first means that you want to make that person happy, as much as lies within you.  Of course, no one can really make another person happy unless the other really desires happiness.  Some people enjoy misery, and enjoy making others miserable as well.

But God is a God who is easily pleased.  Jesus said that even a cup of cold water given in his name did not go unnoticed (Matthew 10:42).  Now that is a God who notices and is pleased by very small acts of kindness!

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to a church in which the (dis??)members were not getting along particularly well, the church at Corinth.  Actually, “not getting along particularly well” is a huge understatement.  The church was a massive mess!  One of their many problems was that they were focused on which of the apostles they liked the best, instead of focusing on what God had done for them and what God wanted to do in and through them.

Among other things, Paul wrote the following: “So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time– before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due” (1 Corinthians 4:5, New Living Translation).

God exposing our darkest secrets and private motives sounds pretty scary, at least to me.  But Paul ends on the note of God praising us.

What?!  God praising us!  That can’t be right!

Yes, that is exactly what Paul said.  And the God who praises us is most certainly a God who is infinitely capable of being pleased with our little attempts to please Him.

I don’t really know if I will please God today or not.  But I am comforted by a prayer of Thomas Merton.  I end with it.  (I have bolded three sentences that especially speak to this matter of pleasing God.)

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

, , , , , ,
Follow on Feedly