Motivation Monday – Why You Need To Get Yourself In Motion
“Pursue heavenly treasures and you will be less likely to be disappointed when earthly plans are cancelled.”
Sometimes it feels like the days roll one into the other, from 5-workday weeks until the weekend…and then into another Monday, like today. With few options of places to go and plans to make, it can seem, quite literally, like we are all stuck.
But then, ice cream. Yep, ice cream. My grandson, who has a typical two-year old strong sense of what he wants and the will to negotiate for it like a venture capitalist, can generally be persuaded to eat his dinner, clean up toys, or make a potty trip, if the prospect of an ice cream treat awaits him on the other side of his acquiescence. It gets him moving a bit faster, knowing that there is something amazing he will receive that he really loves.
When I have a whole new day in front of me, full of zoom calls, a never-ending to do list, or if I face a weekend full of more of the same, I can get overwhelmed with the fact that I can’t look ahead far enough with confidence that anything different is possible. I feel like I am living a series of groundhog days.
But you put the same Monday, or any other day in front of me and tell me that at the end of the day, I can go to Marble Slab for some mint chocolate chip ice cream, I will move so fast to get everything done in half the time, so I can get there and have that thing I desire. A lot.
We may feel stuck. But the reality is different.
We are either passionately pursuing something worthwhile ahead of us or making a slow, steady, insidious retreat backwards.
Our faith diminishes and slowly leaks out of us, one disappointing fear-filled thought after another.
We cannot stand still. We are either moving forward with faith into our future or despairingly giving ourselves permission to move backward into disbelief.
Incremental disbelief may be one of the greatest dangers we face.
As humans, we are wired to be motivated by reward. Even Jesus was so focused on what was ahead that he stayed the course and relentlessly pursued his mission every single day of his short life.
And so can you.
Hebrews 12:2: “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”
He placed before His eyes the bliss we would forever share together with Him, which empowered Him to go through His agony. Instead of remaining in heaven’s glory with the Father and all the angels, He chose you as the joy set before Him. He desires you to the point of laying down His life and being God for all eternity to be with you. He pursued you, not seeing your weakness and failures but what you will be. He can see what we will be in the end from the beginning.
For Jesus, it was for joy. For us, it can be ice cream, but if we really understood that it also is for even greater joy that we are called to persevere in the present, we would get a move on. We would be wanting to find ourselves ready and waiting and realize that there is so much we can do in preparation for the joy ahead of us.
We can be rooted in scripture – daily. We can be casting off the things that were part of our life in the normal behind us and run lighter and with more freedom. Those things can be external: possessions, property, privileges. Those things can be internal like time-wasters, apathy, and old habits.
There is more than ice cream that awaits you as you relentlessly pursue all that lies ahead of you. Pursue Jesus and you will find that joy kick in.
Pursue heavenly treasures and you will be less likely to be disappointed when earthly plans are cancelled.
You are running – for the right thing. It is not draining you or a chore – it is a beautiful swift empowered stride in the slipstream of the Spirit to take hold of Him who has taken hold of you.
God is on the move. He is relentlessly pursuing you every moment and gloriously intrudes on the ordinary days of your life to remind you that you were designed for this race.
He not only ran the race before you but is running it right alongside you.
Go get your ice cream and let it remind you that your heavenly reward is also awaiting you. Get yourself in motion for that. It will be worth it.
I believe in you.
Cathie