I remember the first big crush that I ever had - he was one of the most popular boys at school in grade 6, and he was good at everything. He was smart, he was athletic, musical, and cute! Alas, I was smitten. Of course, my grade 6 mind couldn't possibly imagine telling him or ever letting him know that I had a thing for him despite the fact that we had some classes together and we sat right next to each other. So for years, I never let him know that I was head over heels for him. (Even to this day, we are good friends and that grade 6 mentality still tells me to never ever let him know... Actually he probably figured it out in grade 6... I wasn't very stealth haha.)
But don't get me wrong - I found ways to interact and do things with him, hoping all the while that he would never find out that I liked him. He was athletic, so I joined all the sports clubs and teams that I could. In fact, I picked up basketball because of him. At the time, there was a sports club that you could join, and knowing that this was the type of thing he would join, I picked up basketball and learned to get really good at it! Sure enough, he joined the club haha. Within a year, I loved basketball. It was my favourite sport, and even going into high school, it was my primary sport up until my knee injury. By that time I'd forgotten the real reason that I'd picked up the sport because I loved the game.
Such is the story of how many people find Christ. Often people will go to a conference, or an event for very wrong reasons (i.e. lots of people join Christian softball leagues in order to find a girlfriend or boyfriend), but often God has a greater plan than that and we end up finding Him amongst our wrong motives - and we come to love Him and form a real relationship with Him. It doesn't mean it's right, but it means God's plan is greater than our small intentions.
But it doesn't stop there. Christ's changing power demands that once we have engaged in a relationship with Him that we make our future decisions intentional for His purposes... no longer should we involve ourselves in activities for our own motives (a boy we like for example haha), but now that we have been transformed, so should our motives behind our decisions. Christ should now consistently be the reasons behind our actions. If we truly attest that we have experienced Christ's love, then it should only be natural that we abandon our own motives to strive for His alone, in confidence that God will provide for those other things that He knows we need.
2 Corinthians 5:13-17 (NIV)
If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. [14] For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. [15] And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. [16] So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. [17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
The challenge: What's motivating you? Do you make decisions for yourself, or for His glory? What's your life's mission statement?
