no lie.
i'm sitting here, been on the compy for a long time--talking to ppl, watching vids, writing blogs, etc and it seems like a waste. everyday, get up, live, got to bed, wake up and do it all over. monotonous. and there is so much to be done and so little motivation...and yet i feel so sluggish and wasted. i look up to ppl who have self-motivation, the ones like William Proxmire, Joseph Lemkin, and all the rest that have no names in history books.
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
-"One" by U2
what does it take to get motivation, purpose, and will? prayer? discipline? or is it another hopeless cause...better to take reality than speculate about the future's difficulties.
live well my friends. at least live better than i do.
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
-"One" by U2
what does it take to get motivation, purpose, and will? prayer? discipline? or is it another hopeless cause...better to take reality than speculate about the future's difficulties.
live well my friends. at least live better than i do.
5 comments:
No, you don't get motivation from prayer or discipline -- if you did, there would be many people who may not have motivation at all, and others who would have more than they know what to do with -- motivation is not something that you can "get" at all.
Motivation is the natural result of our comprehension of intrinsic value. In other words, to focus on "I need motivation" is indeed a hopeless pursuit, because motivation is not the desire to DO, but the desire to do SOMETHING. Motivation arises naturally as you look to see what is of value that needs to be done. What we must do, then, is not focus on
"Shouldn't I be motivated to get up in the morning, to eat food, to take care of siblings, to eat more food, to do homework, to talk to people, to eat food again, to do something on the internet, to do Bible study, to pray, to go to bed"
if we focus on those things, we will soon find ourselves disenchanted, thinking there should be something more, and the monotony will eventually destroy any motivation we may have for even these small things.
Rather, we must keep our eyes on God, because to love Him and serve Him is the only thing of real intrinsic value. It is only when we have some inkling of what the value of God and His love is, will we be driven to serve Him. When we have God and His good firmly in mind as our ultimate end, we will see the value in the little things we do. The value in talking to people, the value of writing thoughts out to share with others, the value in getting up in the morning, the value of getting breakfast for little brothers, the value of going to school and doing homework, the value of all the little "unimportant" things that we do to live and relate to others, all of these are valuable because to serve God is a simple thing: love Him, love and serve others. Each little thing is to do that in some small way.
"But, but, shouldn't we be out doing big things, radical things, not just doing everyday things?"
Eh, perhaps, but if more people truly lived in the everyday things to please God and look out for the best interests of their neighbour (who is not only the weird guy next door, by the way), I believe it would allow those who God has appointed to do radical things to do them, and succeed. Not everyone can be the eyes or the mouth, and not everyone should be, lest Christ's body lose valuable functions.
Should we be on fire, intense, radically sold-out? Absolutely! But that fire is not always manifest in "great" accomplishments -- often, it is in the everyday activities that that is most important, because anyone can, for a short while, push themselves to do this or that, but people notice it when we are consistently godly (instead of noticing that we are really godly sometimes and not so much at other times).
Thanks for letting me comment. It helped me, even if it makes no sense to you (though hopefully it does). I was about halfway through the second paragraph, I realized that as I was answering your question, I was answering a question that had been rolling around in my own mind for the last few weeks. :)
Andrew, again, beautiful. I'm glad our Father's given you the mind blessed with such ability to write. =D
Building upon Andrew's statement: think about the good things. I have been known to be a pretty down-and-out person: boring, sullen, emotionless, pessimistic, or realist. In more recent years--as I've spent more and more time in our Dad's good words. I've found that this is wrong--wrong because such things as pessimism, sullenness, realism, etc, gravitate toward thinking about not-so-good things. God's changed me through reminding me Philippians 4:8: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
what is wrong with realism? i can see how pessimism is bad, i can see how being sullen is wrong...but realism? if it is wrong, what is the alternative? the first alternative i think of is fantasy...i'd rather have realism over fantasy even if reality is depressing! i think there must be a way to unite realism and hope?
Ah, do not assume. I said "gravitate." Realism, in the least thoughtful but most common sense, tends to draw attention or thought to negative, sad, or hateful things. I am not saying and do not say realism is wrong. I said "such things ... gravitate toward thinking about not-so-good things." If being realist means you end up thinking about too many wrong, negative things, than don't be a realist. (Realistically, realism is actually realizing and rejoicing in the goodness of God and what He has in store for you and the rest of the world, but that realism only comes after a Christ-focus, not at the initial stages of human, in-the-physical-now thought processes.) Did any of that make sense?
thank you for the clarification
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