Are you awake - Part Four

            The more we train our minds to remember God moment-by-moment, the more we discover an entirely different kind of motivation for doing things. We no longer engage in activities in a desperate and futile attempt to acquire Life we don’t yet have; rather, we engage in them as a means of expressing the fullness of Life we already have—apart from these activities. The irony is that when a person no longer needs to succeed to feel fully worthwhile and significant they will tend to be more successful than if they did need this. When we need to achieve, acquire, and accomplish things to find Life, the pressure often compromises our passion, creativity, and flexibility.

            O boundless submission… Let the senses feel what they may, you, Lord, are all my good… I have nothing more to see or do, not a single moment of my life is in my own hands. All is yours, I have nothing to add, remove, seek or consider.

            J.-P. de Caussade

            A clear example of this was a student I had in one of my introductory theology classes at Bethel University a number of years ago. She was clearly brilliant, as evidenced by her class participation, but she was performing poorly on her tests. When I looked into the problem, I discovered that this young woman was putting incredible pressure on herself to succeed. Among other things, she believed her parents’ approval hung on her getting straight A’s and graduating as the valedictorian of her class, just as her two older siblings had done. If ever there was a class she feared not getting an A in, it was in theology, a topic she said she’d always had trouble relating to.

            After some counseling I was able to help her realize that her core worth didn’t depend on how she performed in school or on what her parents thought about her. Her real worth was rooted solely in what God thought about her, and this was unconditionally expressed on Calvary. I encouraged her to remain aware that she was surrounded by this love throughout the day and especially when she took her theology tests. She immediately began getting near perfect scores in my class—precisely because she no longer needed to.

            The bottom line is that we were meant to live life as a celebration of a fullness of Life we get from God rather than as a desperate attempt to get fullness of Life on our own. People whose identity is solidly rooted in God’s love moment-by-moment still try to do their best. But they do so because only this expresses their unsurpassable worth and significance. Moreover, they are now doing all that they do for the Lord who of course deserves our best.

            If disciples who practice the presence of God fail to acquire the wealth, fame, and power that others do, it’s because these things hold no interest for them any longer, not because they aren’t motivated to do their best in whatever God calls them to engage in.