This evening two very good football teams will face each other under the dome. The outcome will hinge not only on physical condition and coaching strategy and just plain luck; it will hinge also on motivation. Who really, really wants to win? Who is hungry to win?
One of the great personal issues we face is motivation. It’s one thing to know what we ought to do; it’s another thing to gather the energy to do it. It’s one thing to be required by your employer to get up and go to work; it’s another thing entirely to want to do the job when you get there. It’s one thing to be handed a homework assignment by your teacher; it’s another question entirely about how you turn off the TV and hang up the telephone and buckle down to do it.
Someone asked my father-in-law once how he found the time and energy to write some fourteen books. His answer was that he did it by carefully applying the seat of his pants to his desk chair. He just sat down and did it! Well, that may have worked for him, but a whole lot of us need more motivation. We may know what we ought to do, and we may even think we want to do it, but there are distractions, there are obstacles. There is a motivation problem.
Where do you get motivation? What drives you to do?
Some of us are duty-driven. We do what we ought to do just because we ought to do it. The week before last the church’s Book of Reports took over my life. I wrote, I edited, I pushed, and that book just absolutely took over my life. I can tell you that there was only one motivation: that it had to be done. Duty-driven.
Other folks are impulse-driven. They do only what they feel like doing at the moment, and it is just about impossible to get them to do something on time, because they are captured by the whims of the moment.
And still others are reward-driven; they see only carrots on a stick. They get moving only when there is a reward to be had.
But I will suggest to you that none of these things really works in the long haul. Successful people are motivated beyond all of these. If you are driven by duty, but there is no one to supervise you and there are no deadlines to meet, well, then, there is no more motivation. And if you are motivated by impulse, and all you can do is to follow the whim of the moment, the day comes when nothing really grabs you, nothing really takes hold of you, and you find yourself floundering.
And if you are driven and motivated only by reward, I’ve found out that that doesn’t last long either. I’ve supervised a number of people over the years. I’ve found out that those who always seem to want more money are also those you can never quite get moving, yet one of the best workers l ever had was a person who could never even remember what his salary was! Reward is not a good enough motivation, after a while.
So what does it take?
In the eighth century before Christ the young man Isaiah found himself in the Temple one day, confronting his own sense of direction. And in the experience which Isaiah had, he got motivated. Truly, finally, powerfully motivated ... and for no easy task either. I’d like to invite you to learn with me from our friend Isaiah how we can find motivation enough to make our lives work.
I
First, Isaiah saw that in certain times we catch a glimpse of the great purposes of God, and this God reaches out and claims us. In certain times and on certain occasions we can gain the motivation to be somebody special because we sense a great God who wants to make us partners in something He is doing. A lofty Lord lays claim to us.
Isaiah 1:1, 3
The year that King Uzziah died was a critical year for the nation of Judah. It meant change, it meant transition. And in the mind of every perceptive Judean, it surely must have meant that there was the potential for crisis. King Uzziah had reigned for more than forty years. In many ways, he was a godly man. His reign had gone well. There had been no military disasters, the economy was in good shape, this had been a good time.
But now King Uzziah was dead, and in his place there was to come his son Jotham -- an unknown quantity at best and a weak wastrel at worst. Every perceptive soul in Judah knew that the next years could be tough ones. But Isaiah also felt that the time had come for him to be involved in doing something. Notice that it was in a time of crisis, a time of transition, when Isaiah first began to build some motivation, some sense of direction about his life.
Now it’s not unusual that a crisis time will call out new leaders. I guess it’s always been true that some people are motivated to get involved when there is a battle to be fought. The consultant we are talking with about leading our church’s capital funds campaign tells us that we may look forward to some new leadership being discovered, just because some folks will rise to the top when there is a big job to be done. Just living in a crisis situation can serve to motivate.
But now notice that Isaiah’ s motivation, Isaiah’s sense of direction, came not just because there was a crisis moment in the life of his nation. Isaiah saw that despite the death of King Uzziah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was still on his throne, and that this lofty Lord wanted to be his partner.
"Holy, holy, holy; the whole earth is full of his glory". Isaiah knew that he was in the presence of greatness; but he knew that he was not alone. And, as he began to see that God was calling him to an awesome responsibility, Isaiah could also see that he would not be abandoned. This lofty Lord, whom the very heavens could not contain, whose glory filled the whole earth; this lofty Lord, of whom angels sing, "Holy, holy, holy" and whose power is beyond measure -- this lofty Lord is able to be your partner.
So how can you lose? What else do you need? If you do not have to face the tasks and responsibilities of life alone, even in crisis times, but can face them in partnership with a lofty lord, doesn’t that serve to motivate you?
II
But now watch. Once Isaiah got himself into that relationship, that partnership, then Isaiah faced another hurdle. Isaiah faced the harsh reality that he was inadequate for the task. He just didn’t have what it would take. He lacked confidence, because he could readily see that he was a part of the problem and not a part of the answer. But something important changed all that.
Isaiah 1: 5-7
You see, Isaiah found now that a lofty Lord would give him live lips. Isaiah discovered that even though it would be painful, the God who had partnered with him would also equip him with all that he would need.
We have to give Isaiah credit for recognizing his shortcomings. At least Isaiah was no egomaniac who could not see his own failures. The problem some of us have with our motivation issue is that we will say yes to anything and everything anyone wants us to do, even when we know we cannot do it. And we will say yes because we are unwilling to admit that we are not able. But then when it comes down to the crunch, and we know we cannot do the job, our motivation is gone.
Let me tell you a little secret. This is kind of a men’s issue. We of the male of the species have an awfully hard time with the two little words, "I can’t." And so we will agree to do things we are absolutely incapable of doing, but we just can’t admit it. The problem then becomes that we never get around to doing anything about it! We’re not motivated to try something because we dare not risk failure.
Do you know why my "honeydew" list is getting longer and longer? Not only because my time is short but also because I really don’t have the skills to do some of the jobs that are on the list. But I haven’t said so. And so nothing, absolutely nothing happens. Margaret, please hire a carpenter to build that new closet. I’ve been promising to get to it; but the truth is I don’t have a clue about how to do it! But I hate saying so!
Now Isaiah acknowledged this problem. Lord, if you are about to ask me to be a prophet for you, my problem is that I am not qualified to be a spokesman for a holy God. I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.
And as soon as Isaiah acknowledged his problem, a lofty Lord moved to give him live lips. A great and gracious God cleansed his 1ips and dealt with his inadequacy and made him ready for the task ahead.
Friends, our motivation problem is that we don’t feel ready but we don’t admit it either. And the answer to our motivation issue is that a great God is gracious and will work with our inadequacies.
Now stay with brother Isaiah here, because he speaks about an angel bringing a live coal from God’s altar fire and cleansing his lips. That doesn’t sound too pleasant to me. That sounds as though it would hurt.
Well, yes. It’s painful to gain the confidence God wants to give us. We have to go through a tough kind of cleansing to have live lips that can speak with assurance. And it’s only when you finally know that you are receiving the forgiving grace of God that you can gain enough confidence to keep motivation alive.
You know, when I was studying pastoral counseling, they taught us the reflective technique of counseling. They told that instead of offering advice to people, we were to reflect back what we heard and help people clarify their own feelings. And so I began my internship trying to do this. A person would say to me, "I hate my father." And I would say, "You say you hate your father. Tell me more." ’’Well, yes I do. I don’t know why, I just hate my father." And I found I didn’t have much more to offer than to agree, ’’Yes, you really do hate your father" and to say a prayer and wish him well.
But after a while of doing this an interesting thing dawned on me. I realized that our professors held us back from offering words of counsel because, young and green as we were, we seminary students had not really identified with the problem. We had not yet gotten in touch with our disappointments and our frustrations. We did not truly know what people were going through. And, most important, out of touch as we were, we had not yet had enough of that painful experience of grace. We could not yet speak convincingly and confidently.
Oh, but what a difference when we matured a little! What a difference when we got in touch with our own failures! What power when not only did we see how handicapped we were, but also when we recognized that God had called us anyway! When finally, after some soul-searching and after some training that took us apart and then put us back together again, we really felt that we were the inheritors of grace ... then we got confidence. Then we found motivation. Then we were able not only to find out what somebody was feeling, but we were also able to say, authentically, "Thus saith the Lord."
A lofty Lord gives us live lips.
III
But there is one more aspect of motivation we haven’t dealt with yet. There is one more factor in how well motivated you can be to do what you need to do.
You can begin to be motivated by the grand discovery that a lofty Lord wants you as His partner in crisis times.
Your motivation to stay with it is given power and confidence when you let the grace of a forgiving God deal with your inadequacies. This lofty Lord can give you live lips.
But what happens to motivation when you just never quite seem to get anything really done? What happens to motivation when everything you’ve undertaken seems to go nowhere? What can you say when the task you are performing goes into overtime and there is no light at the end of the tunnel?
In England, as we discovered last spring, a good many of the rural roads are very narrow … barely wide enough for one car. Let me tell you, when you are already driving on the wrong side of the car and are steering it on the wrong side of the road and the road is nothing more than a little track, you get kind of nervous. What are you going to do if you meet somebody coming the other way?
This happened to us one night at Lizard Point. Lizard Point juts out into the English Channel, and our bed-and-breakfast was called the "most southerly house in England" -- right out on the point at the end of a long narrow track. No place else to go. Of course it would be my luck that somebody was coming the other way. But fortunately the English driver knew that every now and again they build into the roads what they call a "layby". A "layby" is British English for a little wide spot where one driver can wait, can lay by, until the other has passed through, with about an inch to spare!
A lofty lord who has given us live lips -- a great companion and partner God who has given us the confidence that comes with receiving His grace -- that God sometimes calls us to the long layby. That God expects you to keep on doing His work, even though it seems impossible and impractical.
Isaiah, having responded to God’s call, is told that his will be the toughest and most unrewarding of tasks. Listen:
Isaiah 1:8-12
Isaiah has heard God’s call, and he has responded. "Whom shall I send? Here am I, send me." And then the full character of his work comes crashing in on him, "Go and say to this people: ’Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand."’ I don’t have time this morning to interpret for you all that is going on here … trust me when I tell you that God is saying, ’’Now Isaiah, I am going to give you a job to do. I am going to give you a message to proclaim. But no one is going to listen, nobody is going to understand. You aren’t going to be appreciated and you aren’t going to be taken seriously. Isaiah, they are going to be a tough audience. But I want you to go and give the word anyway.” This is going to be a long layby.
Just like a teacher teaching children ... you may not see any growth for a long time. Just like a counselor working with a troubled heart … you may not see any change for a long time, if ever. Just like a deacon praying with spiritually distraught church members ... you may not feel you’ve made any difference. Just like a committed citizen fighting the criminal element on the streets ... you may not see the statistics improve for a long time, and they may even get worse. A long, long layby, and we are tempted to say, "What’s the use? Nothing ever really happens." We echo Isaiah, "How long, 0 Lord, how long?" I’ve been teaching and deaconing and leading and parenting and working and setting an example for years and years, and I just don’t feel interested any more. My motivation is gone. How long, O Lord, how long?
And God says, wait in the long layby. I am a lofty Lord, and I have given you live lips, so now you wait in the long layby until I bring you victory. You wait in the long layby until … until:
"Until cities lie waste ... until the land is desolate … until the Lord sends everyone away ... until the land is a vast emptiness ... until, until, until"
I tell you, as Christians we are called to take on a life long identity. Once we commit to Christ, we are never to set that aside. We are going into a long layby. Once a person is ordained deacon, there is a stamp on him that he is not to deny. He is going into a long layby. Once any one of us is claimed by a lofty Lord, we are given live lips, and we are to use them until ... until we can work no longer. Until there is a new and higher call. Until we hear his voice crying, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Until he comes again.
Until victory then, we will keep on with our commitments, though we have to wait in the long layby. Until victory then, we will run with diligence the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, because a lofty Lord has given us live lips, until the long layby.
