87 Sermon Illustrations on Motivation

Sermon on book of Job. Fearing God for nothing? Job 1:1-11

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DO YOU FEAR GOD FOR NOTHING?

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I. The leading of God.

A. I prayed about whether I should do a series on Job.

B. Confirmation from people in church.

C. Personal experience is the clincher.

D. It could be worse.

II. Who is this guy?

A. He is not from Israel.

B. He is not a Jew.

C. Job is a great guy. Really great.

III. The unseen contest.

A. Satan's patrol.

B. Satan's challenge.

IV. Job speaks to the ages.

A. His book reveals is a personal struggle with faith.

B. Everyone has disasters.

C. Job had his doubts.

V. Why do YOU follow God?

A. Many are the product of heritage.

B. Many believe because it has worked.

C. Job had to believe when it didn't "work."

VI. Having something left when calamity hits.

#112

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Nearly everyone is taught that Columbus accidentally discovered America while seeking a new spice trade route to China. Actually, his motivation was not fame and fortune. He wrote, "It was the Lord who put it into my mind to sail from here to the Indies. The fact that the Gospel must be preached to so many lands in so short a time, this is what convinces me."

Jack goes on to describe Christian students who were marked down for giving this answer.

#615

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Three types of members:

1. Loyalist.

2. Opportunist.

3. Idealist.

Ideas on motivating and retaining these types is given.

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Charles Swindoll on a lazy football player who became motivated:

He liked to hear the cheers, but not to charge the line. He liked to wear the

suit, but not to practice. He did not like to put himself out. One day the

players were doing fifty laps, and this showpiece was doing his usual five.

The coach came over and said, "Hey kid, here is a telegram for you." The kid

said, "Read it for me, Coach." He was so lazy he did not even like to read.

The coach opened it up and read, "Dear son, your father is dead. Come home

immediately." The coach swallowed hard. He said, "Take the rest of the week

off." He didn't care if he took the rest of the year off.

Well, funny thing, game time came on Friday and here came the teams rushing

out on the field, and lo and behold, the last kid out was the goof-off. No

sooner did the gun sound than the kid said, "Coach, can I play today? Can I

play?" The coach thought, "Kid, you're not playing today, this is homecoming.

This is the big game. We need every real guy we have, and you are not one of

them." Every time the coach turned around, the kid badgered him: "Coach,

please let me play. Coach, I have got to play."

The first quarter ended with the score lopsided against the coach and his

team. At half time they, were still further behind. The second half started,

and things got progressively worse. The coach, mumbling to himself, began

writing out his resignation, and up came the kid. "Coach, Coach, let me play,

please!" The coach looked at the scoreboard. "All right," he said, "Get in

there, kid. You can't hurt anything now."

No sooner did the kid hit the field than his team exploded. He ran, blocked,

and tackled like a star. The electricity leaped to the team. The score

evened up. In the closing seconds of the game, this kid intercepted a pass

and ran all the way for the winning touchdown!

The stands broke loose. The kid was everybody's hero. Such cheering you

never heard. Finally the excitement subsided and the coach got over to the

kid and said, "I never saw anything like that. What in the world happened to

you out there?" He said, "Coach, you know my dad died last week." "Yes," he

said, "I read you the telegram." "Well, Coach," he said, "my dad was blind.

And today was the first day he ever saw me play." [1602]

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"Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by lack of information or exhortation. And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience. It is best remedied by intensifying people's passion for Christ, so that the passions of his heart become the passions that propel our hearts."

(Tim Dearborn, "Beyond Duty" (World Vision, 1997) p.4)

The current debate over what happened to Bathsheba forces us to think deeper about motives and power.

________

As a kid growing up in the church, I certainly heard a lot about Jesus. But just short of the Savior, I heard countless stories about King David: stories of bravery, courage, power, trust, risk, battle, war, triumph, and conquest.

Christians have always recognized David’s brokenness to an extent, particularly his pursuit of Bathsheba, which has typically been considered (and decried as) adultery. Lately, there has been quite the debate over what exactly happened between David and Bathsheba, and whether it should be characterized as rape.

This is not a new conversation, which is always important to remember in our age of hot takes. Denny Burk, Boyce College professor and president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, points to a journal article by Alexander Abasili that addressed this question in detail in 2011, years before the scrutiny of the #MeToo movement.

Not all interest in this issue is a result of current cultural pressure or capitulation; there is a legitimate, significant question over how we understand David in this story.

I agree with Abasili’s analysis that the story doesn’t include the details that seem to be specific to instances of a Hebrew understanding of rape — namely, the use of direct physical force and the victim crying out in anguish for help. And yet, the story of David and Bathsheba appears to many modern readers, including me, to meet contemporary definitions of rape.

So how should we think of it? Did David indeed rape Bathsheba? And why does it matter that we, as Christians, get this right today?

Jesus Expands the Law

While Abasili establishes that the David and Bathsheba story does not meet the criteria of rape detailed in biblical law, Old Testament professor David Lamb previously wrote for Christianity Today describing a basic argument that David was guilty of “power rape rather than adultery” since Bathsheba had no choice.

But the question is not just a matter of whether we go by the Old Testament laws or our own modern ones. Scripture itself points us to a deeper look at the heart behind David’s behavior.

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ doesn’t diminish the impact of the law, he expands and intensifies it: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).

According to a basic reading of Old Testament law, looking upon a woman with lustful intent doesn’t meet the criteria of adultery. But, when we read the command against adultery through the lens of Christ’s instructions on the law, we find that looking upon someone who is not one’s spouse with lustful intent is, and has always been, adultery.

Jesus moves the focus from the details of the law to the intent and motivation of the heart. And Jesus doesn’t just do this with adultery. He does it every time he discusses the law.

If we approached the Old Testament law on rape the same way that Jesus addresses various aspects of the law, we would have to look beyond the explicit details enumerated in the law code and ask: What is happening in David’s heart and mind when it comes to Bathsheba?

Thinking of the question this way, the defense that David’s actions don’t meet the criteria for rape weakens considerably, and in fact, misses the point.

A Prophet’s Rebuke

Using the basic hermeneutical principle that Scripture should interpret Scripture, we find further context regarding David’s motivations just a few paragraphs away, in 2 Samuel 12, when he is rebuked by Nathan the prophet.

Nathan describes an imbalance of power between a rich man and a poor man, where the poor man had one precious lamb that he loved dearly, like a child, and the rich man took the poor man’s sole lamb to prepare for a guest (a way to accrue further social capital by hosting this guest well) because he had no pity.

Nathan tells him, “You are the man!” in the story, and then expands on David’s self-condemnation: God made you King, he delivered you, he gave you all that you have, and this wasn’t enough. You stole, you exploited, you killed, and you did it “secretly” for selfish gain. Even according to David and Nathan, David’s sin isn’t merely that he slept with Bathsheba, but that he did so in a way mired by his exploitation of power, deception, and self-gain. The power imbalance is clearly called out.

Nathan goes on to describe the fate of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah: “You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites” (2 Sam. 12:9).

Nathan uses conquering language that positions David as a murderer, the one who “struck down” and “killed him.” And yet, we know that Uriah didn’t die by David’s own sword, but by proxy after being sent to the front lines. While his actions would not constitute murder according to the detailed terms set out in the Old Testament, we absolutely see him as responsible for his death.

When the issue is whether David murdered Uriah, readers generally feel free to expand how the Old Testament murder law should be read. But when we ask whether David raped Bathsheba, then some readers push back demanding precision around what the law says explicitly about rape.

Both Jesus and Nathan’s focus on the intent and motives of the heart give us good reason to look beyond the letter of the law. The story of David and Bathsheba is not a story of adultery or an affair, but one where a powerful man is sexually exploiting a vulnerable woman and is willing to use coercive power to call her to his chamber and cover up his actions.

Our Defense of David

Perhaps more intriguing than determining David’s motives is our own determination to spare him from disrepute. We don’t want David to be a rapist. We actually find it easier to stomach him being a murderer of a man than an abuser of a woman.

And, if the preponderance of sermons is any indication, Christians have historically been willing to slut-shame Bathsheba to keep any stink (beyond adultery) off of David. It’s nonsensical, particularly because in Scripture, Bathsheba is never accused, indicted, or even maligned in any way for what happened.

David, though, is not just another figure in the Bible. He is the “man after God’s own heart,” championed both as a heroic figure for young boys in Sunday school and the subject of Christian studies on manhood and masculinity.

The phrase we so often associate with the biblical king is not a blanket endorsement for David’s example, nor the idea that he represents what it means to be like God as a man. It means that David was God’s chosen man as king of Israel. John Woodhouse says this phrase “is talking about the place the man has in God’s heart rather than the place God has in the man’s heart.”

Scripture is full of broken people, and King David, for all his virtues, is a broken man. So why has this particular story become such a contentious one for us? I’m convinced that we don’t want David to be a rapist because we don’t want to reckon with the sin of abusive power.

If David was merely a weak man who fell prey to a tempting woman on a lonely night, then we don’t have to grapple with the far more insidious reality: David was one of many (mostly men) throughout history who used their power for sexual exploitation. He leveraged his position as king to have an innocent man killed after using his power to summon and sexually exploit that innocent man’s wife.

Is it any wonder that this great evil has largely remained unexplored in David’s story when the majority of those entrusted with telling the story stands to profit from not pointing it out? When we get to the story of David and Bathsheba the ones who would benefit most from sitting under the sobering impact of the story are those who are responsible for the telling. The spiritual leaders in our churches, mostly male pastors, must be willing to tell the story the way it is written: as an indictment of the spiritual abuse of power for exploitation. They must measure their life and the culture of leadership in their church in its scales.

We have to consider that we may have misread this story in a major way. Our misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what happened with David and Bathsheba may result in a truncated understanding of God’s good vision of power and sex, just when we so desperately need a holy vision for these things.

Perhaps the story of David isn’t just a cool story about giants defeated and battles won, but also a cautionary tale about the way that power can corrupt even the noble. And that the same power that a king had earlier used to defend the vulnerable could be turned to exploit the vulnerable.

The story of David and Bathsheba is an invitation to all of us, but particularly those in place of spiritual authority and leadership, to consider if we are making use of God’s gift in the way he intended. Power is a gift from God, but the temptation to use it for our own selfish gain is ever-present and endlessly enticing. Those entrusted with power must look to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, as the paradigm for faithful practice of power.

He, who possessed everything by right, surrendered it all for love. Christ, to whom the whole world belonged, approached the vulnerable with care and honor. Christ used his power to dignify the vulnerable and defend the shamed. What will we do with the power we’ve been given?

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Kyle Worley planted and serves as one of the pastors at Mosaic Church in Richardson, Texas.

Even the most noble vision means little if people aren't motivated to fulfill it. But how do you instill genuine motivation? How do we avoid guilt and pastor-wearying pushing? Roger Thompson is more convinced than ever that guilt (more properly called shame) was never intended as the fuel of Christian enterprise.

It was going to be great! A youth trip with a purpose. Out of our group of twenty-five high scholars, twenty-two had signed up for seven days of nothing but service and discipleship. We were serious: eight hours of work each day, plus Scripture memory and Bible study.

We had talked up, psyched up, and signed up every available body. That's what comes from good teaching, strategizing, and planning, I told myself. And the kids were even paying their own way!

The final week came. As I made call after call, the excuses mounted. Heavy lines crossed off all the leaders and most of the followers. I was reduced to begging. Instead of an impressive caravan of youth missionaries, we piled into one station wagon: four silent "fringe" teenagers, two sponsors, and myself. I was into Round One of an expensive lesson in leadership and motivation. I was angry and befuddled.

MYSTERIOUS MOTIVATION

Motivation is a suspect enterprise, a pseudo-science. It is loved or hated. Creating and maintaining motivation among God's people is variously viewed as carnal mass manipulation, flimflam fundraising, or somewhere between B. F. Skinner and the black arts.

But motivation is an unavoidable part of any people ministry. Avoidance, fear, or ignorance of the motivational dynamics in a congregation is disastrous -- both occupationally and spiritually.

I've known churches on both extremes in their views of motivation.

One extreme is the bigger-and-better SissBoomBah hype. "We can do it if we all do our part!" Its stock-in-trade is contagious enthusiasm, colorful charts or graphs or thermometers, achievable goals, and constant reinforcement. Every program is launched by means of visible reward. Numbers are important. Busyness abounds.

The other extreme, for supposed spiritual giants, is the disdain-of-anything- tangible school. This approach implies we shouldn't have to work at motivating people. It is beneath the dignity of mature Christians to publicize, thank, or reinforce. All truly spiritual motivation is invisible, intrinsic, mysteriously implanted by God at conversion, all at once. We simply call upon that sense of duty whenever a job needs to be done.

A sell-out to either extreme eventually results in anemic, reluctant compliance by a congregation. Absent is the joy of serving, the want-to motivation so necessary for long-term effectiveness.

GUILT GETS 'EM GOING (FOR A WHILE)

Success sellers like Stephen Covey and Zig Ziglar have turned motivation into a major new service industry (one seminar can cost you $10,000; one hour for a corporation $3,500). Few churches are able to invest that heavily. Nor are they inclined to. Many a church and Christian leader have discovered a much less expensive incentive: Guilt.

Many of us, wittingly or not, expect a lot from guilt. It is the leverage we use to prop up a sagging budget, enlist volunteers for the nursery, or get movement down the aisles.

Guilt often becomes the pastor's closest and most effective associate. When it comes to getting people moving, it just plain works! And after all, we might ask, why shouldn't people feel guilty for not participating? Not giving? Not serving?

But things are not always as they seem. Guilt, in fact, is a lousy motivator, effective only in the short run. It is a merciless taskmaster and a joyless mentor. Guilt is an impetus with diminishing returns. It is a major cause of the musical-chairs memberships being exchanged in many metropolitan churches.

Chuck, for instance, was a skilled technician who installed the new sound system in his church, ran the tape ministry, sang in the choir, and repaired the organ. As a new Christian, he felt constrained to do whatever the pastoral staff asked. The pressing needs and his overactive conscience always kept him overcommitted. After two years of four-nights-per-week service, however, he finally gave up. Completely quit. He went seeking a church where he could find some rest. Guilt had run its natural long-term course.

(All of us, certainly, must deal with real guilt. Sin and sloth, when exposed by the piercing ministry of the Holy Spirit, place us guilty before God. But real guilt is a warning light, a corrective leading to repentance and forgiveness. It is not meant to fuel the Christian enterprise.)

When people run on guilt, it is like burning regular gasoline in a car designed for unleaded. There is no initial difference in performance. In fact, the first fill-up is cheaper. But eventually the system begins to clog. Power diminishes; the wheels stop rolling.

Our churches are strewn with many rusting hulks. After the stewardship campaign, the visitation blitz, and the Sunday school recruiting drive, inertia often sets in, the residue of being fueled by guilt.

What is missing is a creative environment where guilt-free, confident Christians pursue a few things wholeheartedly. Reaching this enriching environment does not require groping in dark, shrouded mystery. It has a lot to do with applying genuine biblical motivation.

I've come to see that true motivation depends on several factors. They might be called the Three R's of Motivation: right rewards, right relationships, and right reasons.

RIGHT REWARDS

It is safe to say the average lifelong member of a church has been "incentived" to death. Countless attendance thermometers have risen to the top as he invited friends to Sunday school rallies. Pins, Bibles, trips, titles, and strokes have been dangled, and he has pulled like the lead husky.

But has he learned a spiritual discipline or simply salivated under the right stimuli?

In Genesis, people were created with something to do. From the very beginning, God gave us the capacity to "rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air," to subdue the earth and fill it, and to work the garden. The Imago Dei is expressed in dominion and work.

This affects our view of motivation and reward. Work really matters! To stay motivated is to find reward in one's work. The Scriptures do not argue this; they assume it. People are rewarded naturally by seeing that they are actually working, not just staying busy.

The greatest reward is seeing progress and achievement in something you perceive as eternally significant.

But note: The newer the venture, the less developed my talents, the more fear I have. In these areas an achievable goal is paramount. When people are just beginning, immediate reinforcement is more important. If the job appears too big or the reward too far off, many will not risk venturing out.

During the poverty days of seminary, necessity spurred my wife and me to begin building our own furniture. A close friend would often stop and chat, asking questions about lumber, costs, glue, and tools. When I challenged him to build some items for himself, he would back away, claim lack of aptitude, and retreat to his studies.

One Christmas, however, Phil wanted to surprise his wife with a small shelf for her spices. He came for advice, but what he got was encouragement. Every step was cause for counsel and deliberation. He drew plans, figured board footage, asked about finish and mounting. Pointers may have been helpful, but the real task was helping to overcome the intimidation of actually doing it. Support was the real curriculum.

My friend has long since surpassed my ambitions and abilities. He has produced a houseful of early-American furniture, a custom-made wood stove, and most recently, he designed and built an activesolar family room! Small incentives don't guarantee great advances, but they help insure that first steps will be taken. And who knows where that will lead?

Though we discourage people from asking, "What's in it for me?" we do well, whenever we begin a new program, to ask, "Can my people find legitimate and immediate reward in participating?"

Obviously, this can be abused. But remember, we are addressing only the initial steps of behavior, not the full scope of character development.

While raising our children, I discovered the power of rewards. When the momentous task of potty training, room cleaning, or household chores must be tackled, hosts of parents have discovered that the behavior can be launched by the promise of a star on a chart. Similarly, verbal kudos, personal affirmation, and progress reports can help people climb the mountain of Christian discipleship.Paul did this with Timothy, Jesus with his disciples.

The impetus of incentive is most necessary at the beginning, and it can produce phenomenal short-term results. The key is the perceived value of the incentive.

On the bicycle trips we took each year with our youth group, we traveled about 350 miles through the Colorado Rockies in five rather stressful days. One discipline we wanted to instill during all those hours in the saddle was memorizing a life-related Bible verse each day. We discovered an incentive that never failed: No verse, no lunch. Verses got memorized that way!

All of us need to be shown that we can succeed in spiritual enterprise. Sound incentives can insure a successful launch.

Incentive, extrinsic reward, and reinforcement need not be disdained if we understand their function. They are simply not the whole picture. Other aspects need equal recognition.

RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS

Without a shared excitement, any discipline can become lifeless plodding. Without a sense of teamwork and support, we risk burnout or latent bitterness.

Lone Ranger workers may continue for years, but they often have a degenerating perspective. They may feel unappreciated, perhaps perceiving themselves as martyrs. Frequently, this attitude is well disguised but flares up at the suggestion of change, improvement, or evaluation.

The Creation account provides us with a second essential quality of mankind. We are uniquely relational. Men and women were created to be in continuing relationships with God and each other.

In the garden, Adam and Eve knew they mattered. This unconditional love from God and each other was to produce purpose, confidence, and lasting motivation.

This may help us understand why, after seeing a midweek club ministry grow from twelve to one hundred, Mike and Sue burned out. They felt unappreciated. Their ministry, though productive, was isolated from pastoral or parental relationships. They labored without appreciation, support, or integration with the whole.

As a result, their once-tenacious spirit gave way to disappointment, discouragement, and feelings of alienation. They had accomplished much, but how did it fit? Who cared? Did it really matter to anyone? They needed a significant relationship to remind them it mattered to the people of the church, and most of all, to God.

We do not live by incentive alone. To move from one achievement to another, without intimate personal partnership with people and God, is meaningless. The greatest achiever of all time, Solomon, concluded that.

The mysterious internal combustion called motivation is sustained, even in the absence of extrinsic rewards, when one knows he or she is important to a worthy cause. This fuels tenacity -- pushing ahead through conflict, grief, perceived failure, or loss of direction.

As I recently faced a season of misunderstanding and sleep-disturbing conflict, my motivation was sorely tested. Everything lost its luster; it was a time of emotional dullness, physical fatigue, and futile efforts. The phone became the conveyor of bad news; church growth seemed less important than personal survival.

In God's grace, however, I was surrounded with veteran spiritual warriors who refused to accept my interpretation of life. They painted the horizon a different color than I was able to see. While affirming my growing awareness of my blind spots, they doggedly refused to let me retreat. My strengths were called upon and my contributions demanded.

Sustained by those relationships, my motivation to endure, learn, and overcome was kept alive. Motivation that lasts is fueled with love, respect, and appreciation. Much spiritual work, by its very nature, precludes external incentives. How precious at those times is the cadre of care givers.

RIGHT REASONS

A third essential ingredient of motivation became apparent when five couples met to discuss their Sunday school class. These were the faithful and the teachable. But their enthusiasm for their young-married class was faltering. The atmosphere was not friendly, the lessons not stimulating, the socials sparsely attended. They weren't ready to quit -- they were in it to the bitter end -- but they were being reduced to mere endurance, with little vibrancy or expectation.

As we talked, numerous agendas became apparent. Some felt the hour on Sunday needed more doctrinal "meat." Others felt it should concentrate on relationships. Others felt they wasted too much time with coffee and donuts.

Once these struggles were heard, we reviewed our philosophy of ministry for adult Sunday school. For us, it falls between the two extremes of Bible college and coffee klatch. We want to present life-sized segments of biblical teaching, wrapped in an affirming atmosphere that anyone can enter. The standards for leadership need to be high, the entry qualifications low. We want to teach for the insiders but structure socially for the outsiders to be drawn in.

Reviewing our reasons for Sunday school automatically eliminated many of the frustrations. The couples saw it was not a choice of either/or but both/and. They stopped fighting the agenda war and began planning for growth.

We brainstormed how the hour could be structured, leadership selected, and plans laid. That renewed their drive to make the class count. They were reminded of its relationship to the whole and thereby liberated to concentrate on doing a few things well. Motivation has returned.

A sense of duty isn't enough for long haul motivation; a sense of purpose is.

William James said, "Habit is the flywheel of society." Habits carry us through lives that are constantly under change and stress. Good habits -- such as giving, serving, teaching, or ushering -- are the bedrock of church programs.

However, even among our most faithful people, purpose must be evaluated. The repetition of behavior without purpose can sour even the most faithful. Scripture repeatedly warns us of the dangers of performance without purpose, sacrifice without love. It is the essence of pharisaism. Giving is to be cheerful, work "as unto the Lord," service "in love," and correction "in gentleness."

The longer the behavior has been established, the more important its constant realignment to God's purpose. Constantly renewing our vision helps us avoid complacency, and it averts demotivating battles over the status quo.

How can we help people maintain contact with ultimate purpose -- the right reasons?

First, help people work together, not alone. Teamwork can guard perspective. We need others to help us maintain vision.

Rick, Dave, and John have been working together in a singles ministry. As they have merged their separate gifts, strength has been obvious. There are still disappointments and an adequate dose of conflicts, but what is different in this shared stewardship is the endurance of vision. One lifts up the other, as the Preacher has stated (Eccl. 4:10). Teamwork places a net under wounded leaders. It catches them, nurtures, reminds, and recycles. Without that kind of nurture, spiritual warfare is often overwhelming. Rick, Dave, and John pray together, learn together, and struggle together. And together, they have not lost sight of their ultimate purpose.

Second, I try to teach and preach how God's timeless plan is translated into human action. Even while propounding the Great Commission, it helps to give illustrations from living models. By using our sermons to point people to positive examples of faithfulness, we help build a motivated congregation.

One living illustration is a church member who is now in his eighties. Most of his life was spent as a missionary and pastor. Now, since cancer has made him housebound, he participates in our fellowship via cassette tapes. He recently wrote me a note: "Thanks so much for the tapes. We enjoy them and play them Sunday mornings, a little earlier than your service, adjusted to our aches and pains and weaknesses. We put on the clothes we would probably be wearing if we were going to the service. We follow the bulletin and the Scriptures, and we are ordering a hymnbook so we can follow the hymns."

To call that "motivation" doesn't do justice to the depth of that life. Here is a commitment spurred on despite diminishing returns, a flame that will not be extinguished despite the hardships, a life fueled by the worship of God himself.

This is the type of character we envision when we are fueling those who are beginning the journey. Self-sustaining fellowship with God is its own reward. And people will reach that goal if they are given the right rewards, the right relationships, and the right reasons.

________

Roger Thompson is pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Burnsville, Minnesota.

Copyright (c) 1994 Christianity Today, Inc./LEADERSHIP Journal

The first is type of motivation is “Fear.” This type of motivation says, “If you’re not in by 11:00 p.m. this will be the last night this month that you can go out.” Or, “If you don’t work harder you will be fired.” For some people fear motivation works, but with most people it causes resentment that leads to rebellion.

The second form of motivation is incentive or “carrot” motivation which is simple reward for accomplishment. It says, “If you clean your room I’ll give you your allowance this week.”

The third kind of motivation is internal. The old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” is true. But if you let him lick a salt block long enough he will get thirsty and want to take the drink. What we Christians need to do is to expose people to the salt of Jesus Christ so they will want to take a drink from the well of living water.

You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.

Bob Nelson

Writer

Cited in BITS & PIECES

"Success is not a destination: It is a journey. The happiest people I know are those who are busy working toward specific objectives. The most bored and miserable people I know are those who are drifting along with no worthwhile objectives in mind."

Zig Ziglar

Professional speaker

Cited in BITS & PIECES

"Bring me men to match my mountains: Bring me men to match my plains: Men with empires in their purpose and new eras in their brains."

-- Sam Walter Foss (not Thomas Paine)

"The secret of unleashing your true power is setting goals that are exciting enough to inspire your creativity and ignite your passion."

-- Anthony Robbins

"Begin with the end in mind', is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things."

-- Steven R. Covey

"Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive."

-- Robert H. Schuller

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir your blood to action. Make big plans, aim high in work and hope."

-- Daniel Burnham

"No one can predict to what heights you can soar. Even you will not know until you spread your wings."

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what is heaven for?"

-- Robert Browning

"Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life."

-- John F. Kennedy

"I am not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."

-- Thomas Edison

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation. Complete mental and physical preparation has to do with sacrifice and self-discipline. And that comes from within. Start by setting modest goals which are meaningful, but attainable. For example, every Sunday night write down four things that you want to accomplish for the following week, and then make sure that seven days later when you make up your next list, all four items have been crossed off. These small but meaningful completed tasks should generate much self-confidence as time goes by."

-- Arthur Ashe

"The dreamer and the realist were meant to be collaborators. Through the balance of their conflicting pressures, we forge an ordered progress in which we shall reach out towards new goals."

-- B.Z. Bokser

"In the long run you hit only what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high."

-- Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), philosopher and writer

Cited in BITS & PIECES, October 17, 2001

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."

-- Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker

"The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, learn about them, or even seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them."

-- Denis Waitley

"The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams."

-- Og Mandino

"Give yourself something to work toward -- constantly."

-- Mary Kay Ash

"An average person with average talents and ambition and average education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear focused goals."

-- Brian Tracy

"A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline."

-- Harvey Mackay

"The great thing in this world is not so much where we are but in what direction we are moving."

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), Supreme Court Justice, B&P

"To be what we are and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the end of life."

-- Robert Louis Stevenson

"Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point."

-- Harold B. Melchart, QFTM 4/26/03

“If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

-- Yogi Berra, MFTM 5/10/03

"If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere."

-- Henry Kissinger, QFTM 5/31/03

"Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll show you a man who will make history; show me a man without a goal and I'll show you a stock clerk."

-- J.C. Penney, merchandiser

"If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark."

-- St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), mystic and poet, B&P 7/21/03

“I always believe where I'm going is so much more exciting than where I've been.”

-- Della Reese, television actress

*

A wise old gentleman retired and purchased a modest home near a junior high school. He spent the first few weeks of his retirement in peace and contentment ... then a new school year began. The very next afternoon three young boys, full of youthful, after-school enthusiasm, came down his street, beating merrily on every trash can they encountered. The crashing percussion continued day after day, until finally the wise old man decided it was time to take some action.

The next afternoon, he walked out to meet the young percussionists as they banged their way down the street. Stopping them, he said, “You kids are a lot of fun. I like to see you express your exuberance like that. Used to do the same thing when I was your age. Will you do me a favor? I'll give you each a dollar if you'll promise to come around every day and do your thing.”

The kids were elated and continued to do a bang-up job on the trash cans. After a few days, the old-timer greeted the kids again, but this time he had a sad smile on his face. “This recession's really putting a big dent in my income,” he told them. “From now on, I'll only be able to pay you 50 cents to beat on the cans.” The noisemakers were obviously displeased, but they did accept his offer and continued their afternoon ruckus.

A few days later, the wily retiree approached them again as they drummed their way down the street. “Look,” he said, “I haven't received my Social Security check yet, so I'm not going to be able to give you more than 25 cents. Will that be okay?”

“A lousy quarter?” the drum leader exclaimed. “If you think we're going to waste our time, beating these cans around for a quarter, you're nuts! No way, mister. We quit!” And the old man enjoyed peace and serenity for the rest of his days.

Private Jones was assigned to the Army induction center, where he was to advise new recruits about their government benefits, especially their Serviceman's Group Life Insurance (SGLI). It wasn't long before the center's Lieutenant noticed that Private Jones had almost a 100% record for insurance sales, which had never happened before. Rather than ask about this, the Lieutenant stood in the back of the room and listened to Jones's sales pitch.

Jones explained the basics of the SGLI to the new recruits, and then said, “If you have SGLI and go into battle and are killed, the government has to pay $200,000 to your beneficiaries. If you don't have SGLI, and you go into battle and get killed, the government has to pay only a maximum of $6000.”

“Now,” he concluded, “which bunch do you think they are going to send into battle first?”

An obscure college professor had a wife who was hard-of- hearing. His dream was to perfect a hearing device so his wife, whom he loved very much could hear. He devoted every spare dollar and every spare moment he had to working on his dream. History books tell us he failed in his venture, but he was far from being a failure. Alexander Graham Bell missed one goal, but mankind benefited enormously because he dedicated himself to seeking a solution to someone elses problem. He aimed to help one and missed. Instead, he helped millions.

Several years earlier, a German inventor named Wilhelm Reiss had perfected a device for transmitting a sound over wires. As a matter of fact, had Reiss moved two electrodes just 1/1000 of an inch, so they would touch each other, he would have invented the telephone. Ironically, Reiss missed immortality by the slimmest of margins. His near-miss makes us wonder what might have happened if Reiss had been working with the same motivation as Bell? Is there a chance that those electrodes would have “accidentally” touched each other? We’ll never know.

– Zig Ziglar

"A single bad habit will mar an otherwise faultless character, as an ink-drop soileth the pure white page."

-- Hosea Ballou, Instant Quotation Dictionary, p. 152.

“Habit is overcome by habit.”

-- Thomas A Kempis

"Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity."

-- St. Augustine, Instant Quotation Dictionary, p. 152.

"Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain."

-- Mark Twain, Instant Quotation Dictionary, p. 107.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

-- Aristotle, Daily Bits 12/9/99

"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken."

-- Samuel Johnson, English writer, Crrent Thoughts & Trends, 10/99, p. 4

"The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones."

-- W. Somerset Maugham, Instant Quotation Dictionary, p. 152.

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."

-- Jim Ryun, distance Runner, quoted by Tima Smith In "Woman's World", 2/92

"Good habits result from resisting temptation."

-- (unknown)

For two decades, we’ve worked with volunteers at Saddleback Valley Community Church using these seven principles drawn from the leadership lessons of Nehemiah.

We’ve found that when our lay leaders understand these principles, their ministries grow in depth as well as numbers.

1. The principle of SIMPLIFICATION

You’ve heard of the K.I.S.S. method, right? Keep It Simple Stupid! Nehemiah, a great biblical model of leadership, used a simple plan for organizing. He didn’t randomly assign jobs; he didn’t create a whole new organization; and he didn’t force any complex charts.

He kept his plan very simple. He organized around natural groupings: the priests, the men of Jericho, the sons of Hassenaah, and so forth. These were natural groups that were already associating together.

The point is: don’t create an organization if you don’t need it. If an organization already naturally exists, try to work through it and with it. Sometimes a new leader comes into a situation, and the first thing he does is start changing the whole organization. Think: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The simplest organizations are strong organizations.

2. The principle of PARTICIPATION

It’s a pretty simple rule: work with those who want to work. Amazingly, a lot of leaders never learn this simple principle. They spend all their time trying to corral the lazy and the apathetic, instead of working with those who want to work. I call that corralling goats.

Look at what Nehemiah did. He got almost everybody involved in the building of the wall. He had the clerics, the goldsmiths, the perfume makers -- men, women, city and country folk. Everybody was moving bricks and making mortar.

Except for one little group: “The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.”

Nehemiah’s response was to ignore the shirkers.

In every situation you’re going to have workers and shirkers. Nehemiah just ignored the latter and focused on those who were willing to work. He didn’t lose sleep, or get bitter or waste time trying to corral them. If you’re a leader, don’t worry about people who don’t want to get involved, just focus on those people who want to get involved.

When I first started Saddleback, I didn’t know this lesson. Every time we planned a project, a work party, or an event, people would show up, but I would be disappointed by all the people who didn’t show up. God finally showed me that I should get excited about those who came!

Leaders love everybody, but they move with the movers.

3. The principle of DELEGATION

When you’re organizing, you should make specific assignments. Think about what would have happened if, after Nehemiah’s pep rally when he got everyone excited, he then said, “Just go start working wherever you want to work.” That wouldn’t have worked!

Instead, Nehemiah divided the wall into sections during his midnight ride. He kept it simple, and then he delegated specific assignments.

When you delegate:

• Break down major goals into smaller tasks. When we started Saddleback, I made everybody a committee of one. We each had assignments. One person managed the printing of the bulletins while another set up the nursery. Everybody had a specific task.

• Develop clear job descriptions. Your workers deserve to know what is expected.

• Match the right person with the right task. The wrong person in the wrong task causes chaos. It causes all kinds of motivational problems. Delegating is more than just passing off work: you need to understand what the task is all about and what the person is good at, and then get them together.

• Everybody’s responsibility is nobody’s responsibility. Somebody needs to assume specific responsibility.

4. The principle of MOTIVATION

When you organize any project, help people feel it’s their project. In Nehemiah, you see again and again men making repairs near their houses. If you lived in Jerusalem, where would you be most interested in building the wall? Probably by your house, right?

Allowing for ownership in a project helps increase motivation. I think Nehemiah is also saying, “Make the work as convenient as possible.” Nehemiah allowed people to work in their area of interest. That’s a principle of organization: good organizations allow workers to develop their own areas.

5. The principle of COOPERATION

The founder of Forbes magazine, said, “You spell success: T-E-A-M-W-O- R-K.” Cooperation is a key principle to good organization. I read recently that geese can fly 72 percent farther when they’re in formation than when they fly by themselves.

When we cooperate together, when there is teamwork, there is great growth. Cooperation is a greater motivator than competition, and it lasts because you feel like you’re together on a winning team.

Good organizations provide a supportive climate of trust and teamwork. In the Bible, when referring to Christians in the church, the phrase “one another” is used 58 times. It’s as if God’s saying, “Get the message! Help each other!” There is no such thing as Lone Ranger Christians. We are together in this. We’re a team. There is tremendous power in cooperation.

God can overlook almost anything in a church: poor facilities, no facilities, poor doctrine. The one thing God will not overlook is disunity. In the first 10 chapters of Acts, 10 times it says, “they were of one accord ... of one heart ... unified.” When you have unification like they did in Acts, you’ll have the power of Acts.

“Snow is a beautiful demonstration of what God can do with a bunch of flakes.”

Snowflakes are pretty frail, but if enough of them stick together they can stop traffic.

Alone, I couldn’t have made much of an impact on the Saddleback Valley, but, together, the Saddleback congregation has touched thousands.

6. The principle of ADMINISTRATION

Even after you delegate, you must supervise the work. Nehemiah walked the line, inspecting the work. Tom Peters, in his book Passion for Excellence, calls it MBWA -- Management By Walking Around.

Nehemiah knew which part each man built because he went out, checking up on people. This also allowed him to find out what was going on.

Good organizations establish clear lines of authority. People do what you inspect not what you expect.

7. The principle of APPRECIATION

Good leaders give recognition. For instance, Nehemiah knew the names of those working on the wall, and I think that’s a mark of a good leader. He even listed them in his book, and now here we are thousands of years later, and pastors across the world are mispronouncing the names of Nehemiah’s helpers. He cared enough to recognize these men and women for their work.

Do you know who’s doing a good job in your organization?

If you do, are you telling them they’re doing a good job?

I have a Giant Killer Award that I give out every month. It’s a plaque made with stones and a slingshot, with the inscription, “Am I gazing at Goliath or looking at the living God?”

Every month I rotate this plaque among our staff. It goes to the person who tackled the greatest problem of the month. It doesn’t even mean the problem was solved, it just means that staff member took on the challenge.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #15977]

An irate brother dropped by the preacher's study one morning. He had a long list of grievances. Obviously unhappy to the point of misery, the disgruntled fellow finally blurted out, "Preacher, I'm quittin'! I won't be at church anymore!" The wise preacher didn't argue. He expressed his concern over the brother's decision. "I am truly sorry you feel that way," he said. "I wonder if you would do me a big favor on your way home? Sister Brown has been ill for sometime and needs help with the cost of her medicine. Brother and sister Ray handed me this fifty dollar bill at worship and asked me to get it to sister Brown. Do you mind stopping by on your way home and giving it to her?" The brother agreed and took his departure.

The next Lord's day he was in his regular place at worship. "But I understood you to say you were quitting," said the preacher. "What happened?" "Preacher," said the subdued brother, "when I gave that fifty dollars to sister Brown, she wanted to hug me! The joy and gratitude that I saw in her eyes made me wish I had been the one who gave her that money. And that made me realize how good the couple must have felt who did give it. I've had my eyes opened. You don't need to worry! From now on I'll be at worship!"

My Source: 1996 Fort Worth Lectures, "The Christian Man Working for Christ," by Gary B. Adams-- \webpage{http://www.startext.net/np/btcoc/96gba.htm}

It used to be that money was the motivator for a baseball team.

Today, when stars earn well above $1 million a year, managers have to

try to appeal to players' pride. Few managers are better at this than

Tony LaRussa of the Oakland A's, winners of the 1989 World Series.

After the A's clinched the American League West in 1988, LaRussa

called a meeting of every player, coacn and trainer and listed their

contributions. On opening day 1989, LaRussa started his regular

lineup; the next day he started many of the players who weren't in the

first game.

Heading into last year's World Series, LaRussa juggled his pitching

staff so that three players who had won 16 games and had four or five

starts left could go for their 20th victory. That's motivation.

- Richard Justice in {Washington Post}

(1 Kings 8:54-61; Matthew 16:24-26)

Three military recruiters showed up to address high school seniors. Each recruiter--representing the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps--was to have fifteen minutes.

The Army and Navy recruiters got carried away, so when it came time for the Marine to speak, he had just two minutes. He walked up and stood utterly silent for a full sixty seconds, half of his time.

Then he said this: "I doubt whether there are two or three of you in this room who could even cut it in the Marine Corps. But I want to see those two or three immediately in the dining hall when we are dismissed." He turned smartly and sat down.

When he arrived in the dining hall, those students interested in the Marines were a mob.

The recruiter knew that commitment comes from appealing to the heroic dimension in every heart.

--W. Frank Harrington

{see #18161 for fuller variant}

Among the nominees for Best Picture in 2002's Academy Awards is THE PIANIST. The movie, which has been nominated for six other Oscars in addition to Best Picture, tells the story of one man's survival during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

Like most films, THE PIANIST takes liberties with the historical facts. Unfortunately, these liberties include one key fact that made the story, and the film that tells it, possible.

THE PIANIST is based on composer Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir. Szpilman feels little affinity for his fellow Jews, even after the Germans forced them into the Warsaw ghetto.

He only avoids the fate of the rest of his family -- who perished in Treblinka -- through a series of improbable events: being selected to work on a construction crew and then afterwards as a clerk.

Then comes the most improbable turn of all: While searching for food, Szpilman is stopped by a German officer who asks him, of all things, his profession. After Szpilman answers, the officer takes him to a piano where Szpilman plays Chopin. The German then hides and feeds Szpilman for the remainder of the war.

As Michael Oren wrote in the NEW REPUBLIC, the image we are given is one of a “monster transformed by music.” That image, as Oren tells us, is a “misrepresentation.”

The German soldier in question was named Wilm Hosenfeld. Hosenfeld was “an ardent Catholic who abhorred Nazism.” In his diary, he wrote that the war happened because “humanity had to be shown where its godlessness was taking it.” Our “denial of God's commandments” and our unwillingness to “love one another” condemned us to die “innocent and guilty alike.”

This faith is why Hosenfeld “repeatedly risked his life to rescue others, Poles and Jews, from extermination.” This is why these survivors, including Szpilman, tried to get Hosenfeld released from a Soviet labor camp, where he died in 1952.

The only suggestion in the film of Hosenfeld's real motivation is when he gives Szpilman his coat and tells him, “You must survive. God wills it.” But without knowing about his faith, the audience can't possibly make sense of that remark. Why must Szpilman survive? Because he can play Chopin flawlessly or because he is made in the image of God?

In suggesting the first answer, the filmmakers are following the Romantic ideal of the artist as a visionary, prophet, and even redeemer. The irony is that no one better articulated this vision than the German composer Richard Wagner -- Hitler's favorite composer.

This is not to say that Wagner or Romanticism should be blamed for the crimes of the Third Reich. Of course, they should not. But it is a reminder that the kind of heroism displayed by people like Hosenfeld and other “righteous Gentiles” was, more often than not, a function of their faith. Risking their lives to rescue others was a matter of love for neighbor, not a refined aesthetic.

Szpilman knew this, and he pointed it out in his memoir. Unfortunately, his adapters were not as careful with the facts. As a result, a film that was supposed to shed light on the Holocaust leaves viewers in the dark about what they saw. And you might want to tell your friends who watch the Academy Awards the real story behind this film -- very different from the one they will see on the screen.

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION

Michael B. Oren, “Schindler's Liszt,” THE NEW REPUBLIC, 17 March 2003.

Jonathan V. Last, “A Pre-Pre-Oscar Malaise,” WEEKLY STANDARD, 10 January 2003. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/091hcvbx.asp

Roberto Rivera y Carlo, “Duty, Honor, and the Movies,” BOUNDLESS, 13 March 2003. http://www.boundless.org/2002_2003/departments/atplay/a0000728.html

Rebecca Phillips, “In a World without Heroes,” BELIEFNET, 18 March 2003. http://www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?pageLoc=/story/123/story_12306_1.html&boardID=53631

Wladyslaw Szpilman, THE PIANIST (Picador, 2002). http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-0312311354-0

Read Chuck Colson's List of 50 Insightful Films for suggestions on good movies to rent, including children's films. http://www.breakpoint.org/Breakpoint/ChannelRoot/ResourcesGroup/BackgroundArticlesAndInformation/Colsons+List+of+50+Insightful+Films.htm

Robert K. Johnston, REEL SPIRITUALITY: THEOLOGY AND FILM IN DIALOGUE (Baker Book House, 2000).

____________

Copyright (c) 2003 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5171]

Years ago, a missionary to Africa was responsible for getting the nationals in his area to do certain jobs. He discovered that they were all rather lazy and would only perform while he was actually watching them. When he left they would stop work and do nothing until he returned.

This man had a glass eye, and one day when his eye was irritating him, he took it out and put it on a stump. When he returned he found that everybody was still working because the "eye," as they thought, was watching them the whole time he was away. That is what the apostle means here: eye-service! Working only when the boss is watching.

This man thought he had found a great way to free himself, until one day he returned to discover that one of the workers had sneaked around from behind and put his hat over the eye. Everyone was lounging around, enjoying themselves. That is eye-service!

Rev. Ray Stedman

____________________________________

Americans are much more sophisticated, aren't we? In one factory a suggestion box was installed for people to contribute ideas designed to improve working conditions. The first suggestion requested that the foreman no longer wear rubber heels on his shoes. They wanted to hear him coming.

Rev. Bruce Goettsche

"God and Your Job"

October 11, 1998

#10151 in Kerux Sermon Database

[This is a motivational piece for salespeople but can be adopted by pastors]

First of all, I am not a psychologist. However, I am something better - I have over 50 years experience from:

Watching,

Asking questions,

Taking risks,

Facing obstacles ...

Plus the most important thing:

Praying and asking God for WISDOM & UNDERSTANDING!!

From this lifetime accumulation, I have learned the following to be ABSOLUTES concerning people:

1. People act in their own self-interests! I have never perceived this as bad. I believe we are inherently made that way.

2. There are only TWO REASONS that ninety-nine percent of the time anyone does anything:

a) Either to gain a benefit, or

b) To avoid a loss.

3. There is no Santa Claus! (He isn't coming!) And yet, it's sad to say, so many people are sitting around in their offices procrastinating, making excuses, thinking that something magical is going to appear.

4. There isn't a free lunch! Too many young people have developed a "lottery mentality" - If they could just hit the BIG one! The truth is, we are only going to get what we go after ... inch by inch ... step by step ... day by day.

5. Everybody has a hot button! The only way we, as sales people, know where it is and what it is, is to ask questions, listen, and be empathetic, seeing things from their point of view. What is your hot button?

6. People respond to those who have "SERVICE ATTITUDES." All sales people should possess a service awareness, a service consciousness, a servant's heart ... conveying a subliminal message that says, "Your needs and wants are my purpose of calling you and making this presentation."

Abraham Lincoln said:

"If you want to win a man to your cause, you must first convince him that you are his true friend."

7. You must be sensitive and empathetic. Empathy is the imaginative projection of yourself in the other person's shoes.

People respond to those who have loving attitudes. This means thinking more highly of others than yourself ... putting other people first.

"ACHIEVE SUCCESS BY USING THE GOLDEN RULE PHILOSOPHY!!"

If you can master the above, and go out of your way to articulate and communicate it, with a golden-rule philosophy ... doing unto others as you would have them do to you ... then I promise you that the world will become your cornucopia and you will set records you didn't try to set! You will achieve goals beyond your wildest expectations!

*

I have been reading lately the biography of Dr. Marcus Whitman, pioneer missionary to the Indians in Old Oregon. It is a most impressive story, more of which you doubtless hear from me as time goes by. However, I want you to consider just one question about him today. Why did he go?

He left a successful medical practice in New York State.

He took his bride across the Rocky Mountains, never to see her family again.

He suffered a primitive life, even by 1830s standards.

He went to a tribe of only 400 people, the Cayuse.

He suffered a martyr's death.

Why did he go?

A story caught his attention - four Indians from the tribes he went to win had heard about the Christian religion. They traveled to St Louis to enquire after the white man's religion and ask for teachers.

A preacher named Parker read the story and began a call for a mission and missionaries. He and Whitman went out on a survey trip in 1835. At the great mountain man Rendezvous that summer, Whitman met some of these Indians himself. One of the chiefs said to them that "He had heard from white men a little about God, which had only gone into his ears; he wished to know enough to have it go down into his heart, to influence his life, and to teach his people."

Why did Whitman return, marry his fiancé, and go again to the Indians?

Because he knew that "he that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

Timothy McVeigh will die in the middle of the "The Today Show" in a town flooded with media. He will die unrepentant, unapologetic, unremorseful. And, we are told, he will die an enigma.

These final days are not just a death watch. They are also an enigma watch. In one newspaper, a headline asks: "Tim McVeigh was a Good Kid and a Good Soldier. So What Went Wrong?" One cable analyst asks how this "boy next door" could have blown away children and called them "collateral damage"?

The irony behind this enigma watch is that McVeigh has repeatedly said why. He's explained his act of violence in the language of anti-government militias, in sentiments copped from "The Turner Diaries," in political slogans rampant among those who identify the American enemy as the American government. He has said in repeated and certain terms: "I did it for the larger good."

Yet in this remarkable hunt for the REAL reason, many of us simply dismiss political motives as ramblings or rants. We go on rummaging through his biography. McVeigh talks about Ruby Ridge, and we talk about the child of divorce who loved comic-book superheroes. He talks about Waco, and we talk about the disappointment of a soldier who failed to become a Greet Beret. He talks about government oppression, and we talk about the young man who never found romance.

[We] dig through a political or religious set of beliefs as if it were merely a cover story for a more telling psychological subtext. But watching this story, I wonder how many other American s have forgotten that acts of war or martyrdom or terrorism through history were - still are - often motivated by deep beliefs, not dysfunction. By conviction, not depression. Crusades, car-bombings, suicide attacks, genocide. Religious strife and fascist wards and communist takeovers. Have we forgotten, in our own psychologically obsessed era, the power of ideas?

I say this not to justify McVeigh's action, but quite the contrary. It's dangerous when we don't take people at their word. Their political word. John R. Smith, the court-appointed psychiatrist, says of McVeigh, "I believe he was chronically depressed as a child." He adds, "This whole project was his anti-depressant." Well, maybe so. But the same psychiatrist describes McVeigh as "an idealistic young man." Should we give depression primacy over ideology?

Today most Americans wear their politics lightly. We have a hard time imagining Democrats and Republicans coming to blows over differences in ideology. Politics is, to us, nothing to get excited about. But what is patriotism, after all, but the willingness to die for your country? Is one man's patriotism another man's psychosis?

Why did he do it? He thinks the bombing made him a hero. I think it made him a monster. This man is not an enigma. He's a murderer.

Charles Sheldon put this question on the popular mind in his best seller, IN HIS STEPS, penned in 1896 and now enjoying a revival of amazing proportion. In 1989, the book stirred Michigan youth minister Janie Tinklenberg, and she fashioned a bracelet with the question’s initials. Little did she know that one would eventually appear on the wrist of the New York Knicks' Latrell Sprewell during the NBA playoffs and in thousands of other very public places. And little did she know that there would be WWJD board and card games, workbooks, key chains, bumper stickers, screen savers, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and tote bags.

The Mormons have come up with a counterpart, CTR or "Choose the Right." And detractors have enjoyed supplying different translations, such as "Win With Jack Daniels" and "What Would Jagger Do?" You might say they’ve honored WWJD by mocking it. If it weren’t a threat to the standing of their values, then they’d likely leave it alone.

It’s obvious that thoughts of Jesus are spiritually healthful, and there is much about this question which is admirable. Still, I think there are a few hitches.

Let me suggest ten qualities of the question, the first five of which are salutary, the second five of which are problematical.

1. CONSECRATIONAL. It shifts the focus from unholy things to Jesus. In a world consumed with greed, bitterness, pride, ambition, envy, lust, and such, what a refreshment to join in considering our Lord’s desires.

2. EVANGELISTICAL. By wearing the letters, you may well prompt a gospel conversation. With false faiths trumpeting their doctrines and institutions with increasing volume, it is important that his people honor the name of Jesus at every turn. These bracelets help build and maintain a Jesus consciousness in the culture.

3. FRATERNAL. It can be lonely out there for the explicitly committed Christian, and the sight of another WWJD bracelet or T-shirt can be a real encouragement to believers. The logo helps Christians to identify one another, and fellowship can flow from that recognition.

4. MOTIVATIONAL. With our culture’s emphasis on feeling, it’s good to give attention to doing. Nike gave us "Just do it!" Now, Christians add, "...as Jesus would do it!" It’s also a good antidote to the notion that the responsible Christian life is basically a matter of more and deeper Bible studies. Bible study is wonderful and necessary, but you need to put feet to what you’ve learned.

5. EDUCATIONAL. The question could make you do your homework. You’re driven to study what Jesus did and does and who Jesus was and is.

On the other hand, there are some problems with the question:

6. IDENTIFICATIONAL. Exactly which Jesus do you have in mind? Of course, there is one real Jesus, but there are many human versions. Filmmakers serve up KING OF KINGS (DeMille), JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (Rice & Lloyd Webber), and THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (Scorcese). Writers give us A SMALL TOWN MAN (Austin), THEY CALL ME CARPENTER (Sinclair), and THE MAN NOBODY KNOWS (Barton). And within our congregations, there are strongly variant readings. Some see a "meek and mild" Jesus; others see the triumphal Jesus of Revelation.

7. EPISTEMOLOGICAL. Even when you get the right Jesus, how exactly do you know what he would do? Of course, you know he would not steal or commit adultery, but which book would he buy, in which neighborhood would he settle? Would he own a DVD? Would he go to baseball games? How do you know? Some say Jesus wants their kids in Christian elementary school where the Word is honored. Others say that Jesus wants their kids in public school, learning to be salt and light. Settling this is no simple matter.

8. VOCATIONAL. Let’s say you’re considering marriage. What would Jesus do? Remain single, of course. And how about a run for Congress? What would Jesus do? Well, he wouldn’t do this. So you don’t marry, and you don’t run for Congress? Not so fast. Jesus had his calling, his mission, and you have yours.

9. JURISDICTIONAL. Jesus cursed a fig tree which did not bear fruit, and it withered. He told a young man to sell all he had and follow him. Are these cues for our own behavior? No, for we lack his authority.

10. POST-MILLENNIAL. IN HIS STEPS was written in the "social gospel" tradition, one more attuned to the "here and now" than the hereafter. Its cultural optimism was consonant with a reading of Revelation 20 which saw Jesus’ return to earth as the capstone to an era of great Christian influence and peace. It has a high view of natural man and the progress he can make, but the Bible does not encourage this assessment of man. WWJD does not commit one to the social gospel, but one should be alert to these roots. Of course, good Christians are keen on the earthly health, education, safety, and freedom of all peoples, but their traditional focus is upon the gospel which can secure these same peoples' heavenly home for an infinitely greater span of time.

So yes, wear the bracelet, but be aware of the confusions which might accrue. A better question would be, "What would Jesus have me do?" But, WWJHMD doesn’t quite have that ring.