Motivate Me

It's that time of year where everything seems to become a struggle.  People have been working hard all year and around November they just find they're at the end of their rope.  Attendance to nearly every church thing seems to drop, finding volunteers for holiday events is hard, and sometimes everything just gets a bit of a flat feel to it.

I'm not a good motivator.  I am motivated, I keep working, and I get frustrated when other's can't motivate themselves... but I am not good at motivating people to keep going, maybe it is because I am so self motivating that I struggle to see why other's cannot.  I know I can be a bit harsh or come across a bit bossy when I am trying to encourage people to pick something up, help with something or just attend something that is being put on for them.  Bossy doesn't always come across well does it? So I am looking at how to massage my motivating techniques to be more encouraging.

However, I get frustrated, because I see a lot of people motivated to do things for themselves, but not for others, or supporting church events/ministries.  Sometimes the things they motivate themselves to do are good, things to do with family, or friends, or study or work... but when I was growing up my parents always taught me that before all that I had to motivate myself to read Scripture and support the church community.  When I was in uni and I had huge assignment deadlines I had to motivate myself to sit at a computer and write... but my first motivation had to be to honour God with my faith; which meant I had to be even more motivated with my studies, so I had enough time to finish my assignments before Sunday night's church service, or not be left so rushed that I scrapped my morning devotion time before going into class.

When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."  Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
-Matt 8:18-22

Even when there are good things to do, they are not good things if they hinder Jesus' simple command to "Follow me". We have to be more motivated to follow Jesus than anything else.  As I said before I am not a good motivator, and when people are just sitting back saying "Motivate Me" I feel so frustrated... but when I say "Follow Jesus" they don't get the motivating factor behind that.

It's the same with family and friends - both are great and encouraging things, but commitments to church and to following Christ have to have a higher motivating factor in your life.  Sports people are some of the most motivated people in the world, and sport demands a lot from us, there's the pressure of the team, as well as the pressure of making sure you are fit enough to cope, but again even if you love sport and are very good at it, you can't let those demands seep away your motivation to follow Jesus.

I have a friend who plays AFL for the Gold Coast Suns. Playing professional football consumes the majority of his life... training, conditioning, travelling and playing are what fills his week. Yet his commitment to his faith in Jesus is held in even higher regard. He has to be so motivated to meet the physical demands of his life, but whenever I catch up with him I am constantly encouraged not by how fit he is, but by the motivation he shows in supporting his church, sharing the Gospel and mentoring younger Christian guys.

If someone with those kinds of demands can do it, then anyone can. Our churches are floundering because people are not motivated to get in and do the work... in some cases they are just not motivated to follow Jesus, sure they're happy to sit and listen while someone else talks, as long as they get to sing a few songs they like and have a decent cup of tea afterwards... but that's not what Jesus meant when He said "Follow Me."

Maybe it's all just amplified because of the time of year, but I feel the only injection of motivation I can hand out is Jesus.  Because if I am honest He is the only thing that motivates me.  So when you feel like you're done, at the end of your rope... don't just sit back and do nothing, or look for something you can do for yourself, or expect someone else to motivate you. Instead turn to Jesus' example, how He lived, and simply follow Him by doing the same.