Minda, your Motives are Suspect.

What motivates you to live life – body, mind and soul - to its fullest each day?
Pick the answer that best fits your motives, and go ahead and be honest, they are all wrong.

1. Nothing. I just sort of go along the path of least resistance.
2. My happiness. I seek each day to find what feeds me; body, soul and mind and I pursue that.
3. My family and friends. I want to give them the best version of me that I can.
4. I follow the latest trends and scientific findings on living life fully.
5. I try to figure out how I’m perceived and then act to improve how others perceive me.
6. To rage against the machine. If everyone else is doing it, I’m headed the other direction.
   

As I was out running this morning I was thinking about what moves or motivates me. I’ve been accused of running to look good to others. I’ve been accused of running to make others look bad. I’ve been accused of running because I’m crazy. Although I don’t think anyone has said it, it wouldn’t be totally crazy to hear someone say that my running is selfish. As I am an avid Biggest Loser watcher and many of my friends are full of information about living healthy, I could be thought of as a person who is just following trends. Probably it would be hard to make a case that I run as a way of least resistance. There is MUCH resistance nearly every time I go out!

Of course running isn’t the only thing I do. What motivates me to volunteer for Team Ortho? To take photos of others for free? To cook with my husband on Sundays? To post comments on Facebook? To get enough sleep? To read, argue, play cards, drink beer, go to work or to bathe? And what about those higher activities, reading through the Bible, spending time in prayer, working to stay in touch with others who believe in God? What about watching Dancing With he Stars? Whatever could be motivating me to do that?

The Bible talks about taking every thought captive. It talks about seeking God’s way above all else. That is what I want to motivate me. I want there to be an underlying current of connection with the Creator that guides me in each activity, thought or emotion toward my true path, a direction only God could know. A story that is at once completely unique to me and valuable to all I come in contact with.

You could say my motivation is to find that groove and stay in it. But for now I’ll probably wander back and forth between selfishness, resistance, pride and mindlessness.