April 26th, 2010 
Dana Fisher Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ~Matthew 19:21
I had to take a bit of a break this past week or so after dislocated and breaking my finger in 3 places in a football game. As I got up after the play I lined up for the next play feeling a little pain in my hand. It was cold and rainy and a brisk breeze was blowing across the field. My initial thought was that my hand was just numb from the cold and wet along with hitting the hard dirt ground.
Upon looking down at my hand my ring finger from the top knuckle to the tip was bent up. It looked real bad. Not enjoying the look of my finger I pushed it down and in, relocating it. I began bending it to make sure I had function. I leveled my hand to my eye line and checked it again, it was still twisted up.
I called in another player and ran off to the sideline. This is the part where you say, phew he’s going to get help. Nope, I was going to find tape… A friend buddy-taped two fingers together and I was anticipating going back in.
What drives you? What motivates you every day? Why do you wake up in the morning?
The question seems simplistic but really think about it for a minute. I have a hard time with it. Why am I getting up and doing the same thing over and over? What’s motivating me to get up, go to work, come home, sleep, repeat
I feel tired and worn out. I feel bored with life and the mundane tasks of daily living. My motivation is in the wrong place. When “life” is your motivation you lose your desire, your hunger, your determination.
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”(Matthew 4:19). Jesus gives a decree and follows it with a job. Follow me and take the job of saving souls. The majority of us take to following Jesus and brush off that second piece. We continue with our daily rituals and we get bored. We lose our motivation and fall in to this funk.
For years I shrugged it off as attacks of Satan pushing me down. “I’m going to church, I’m reading, I’m praying”, I thought. I’m certainly not saying some or perhaps all of them weren’t attacks, what I am saying is we’ve become so indoctrinated with how we ought to act and what we should and shouldn’t do from the “church” that we’ve lost the ultimate goal of Christ’s message: follow me and become a fisher. We dare not step outside the box for fear of being to radical.
It’s time to step out of the box. It’s time to give everything for the sake of the Cross.(2 Timothy 2:10) It’s time to start making waves.
I find the story of the rich young man to be a fascinating one(Matthew 19:16-28). This man has everything and yet he’s thirsting for more. When Jesus tells him he needs to give up his possessions he walks away dejected. In a world which feasts on fast paced, I wonder if it’s possible to give up all your possessions. Could I even give up my cell phone, or my computer, or tv?
Desiring to fight on in the face of injury for my own selfish reasons in my football game, over the last few weeks, in reflection, I’ve decided that what motivates me is “things”. Maybe it’s 80% of the time, maybe it’s only 20% of the time, but it’s to much. God has really been pressing it upon me to change my motivation. When your motivation is Christ, your desire and determination return and not only that but they’re steering you in the right direction.
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