Checking My Motives
March 5th, 2011My wife has been encouraging me to read Crazy Love by Francis Chan for a few months now. (You can interpret that as nagging if you want to…) This week’s business trip to Florida seemed like a good time to start, so I began reading it a few days ago.
[Note: For full disclosure, I am sitting on the sun deck at my hotel overlooking a jellyfish-strewn Cocoa Beach. This isn't really relevant; I'm just rubbing it in.]
As I was reading Chapter 2 over breakfast this morning, I started thinking about some of my motivations and selfishness. Francis Chan uses several funerals as examples in the chapter. I don’t know about you, but I like funerals where you hear about the people who were touched by the recently deceased.
I’ve often thought that I wanted my funeral to be like that. I want there to be many stories about the people that I touched or helped or motivated.
Am I not an incredible person for wanting to help people and have an impact on their lives? I’ve even been reading about servant leadeship on this trip!
But this morning got me thinking about my motives. I think my motives have been rather selfish to date.
We are called to help others. Not to be known for helping others. Do you see the difference? It’s all about who gets the fame and glory. Is it you (or me)? Or God?
Our calling is to help others in order to bring glory to God. Period. End of discussion.
Am I only the one who has struggled with this? Feel free to weigh in with a comment.
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Posted by Ronnie