MY ONE SIMPLE MOTIVE FOR WHAT I DO

There is something within my humanity that sometimes craves attention.  Normally I dislike attention, but every once in a while that need pokes its head out.  It tries to sneak its way into my motives for doing things.  This happened yesterday as I was typing my blogs.  I really like some of the things I write.  They make me feel good because I enjoy the process of seeing my thoughts on paper, there to stand beside the great thoughts of famous people.  There is a ”darn, that’s good” attitude that comes from knowing I had the same thoughts as someone well known, or maybe even a new thought that no one has had.  That’s when it happened; Ms Needy popped up and said, “Some day when you are dead people will discover your writings and be truly amazed and sad that they never knew you were such an outstanding writer.  In my strong days I stare at Ms Needy and she gets the message to leave without a word being spoken.  But in my weak and whinny days I entertain her thoughts and spend time imagining my post death fame.

The same need for attention can also come when I work on my Spiritual disciplines for my growth as a disciple of Jesus.  Ms Needy shows up as the Pharisee in the parable that Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14.  Just like him I “take my position and speak my prayer to myself.  “I am so together…I do this and I do that; I know this and I know that; I spend time my time wisely doing this and avoid doing that”, an so on.  Once again, in my strong days I stare at Ms Needy and she leaves.  But in my weak and whinny days I forget that I am more like the tax collector in the story.

It truly is all about my motives.  I love to write and I love to ponder thoughts and put them together like a puzzle on paper.  It’s more a process between me and God; the same with the disciplines.  I need structure and they keep me on the path I need to be on.  It has nothing to do with anyone else. It has nothing to do with proving to others how “spiritually cool” I am.

The truth is, my motive for what I write and what I practice is to spend time with God in His Presence; nothing more; nothing less.

If I have a need, an overriding desire that fuels my spiritual journey, it is to be the kind of person that God would want to walk with in the garden in the cool of the day.  That is my quest; my one simple motive for what I do.