My journey...

Often times as human, we do things out of motive. What's in it for me. Even when we think that we do it out of love of a person, often times we have a motive. You love because you want to be loved in return. Guys will buy flowers or do a certain "favor" for a girl because they want that girl to return that love. We do things for our parents because it is our duty to. Because we feel grateful and as a good son/daughter, we are expected to.

This attitude has been carried into the church. What is in it for the church? When we do ministries, we will calculate the return otherwise, is it really worth our time? If we set up a pre school, is it going to generate income for us? We allow non-christians to come but how many are we targetting that can add to our salvation number?

I saw a Mr. Bean episode today. The one about Mr.Bean and Christmas. There were carollers who came to his apartment to sing and after singing, Mr.Bean help a plate of sweets and walked towards them and we naturally think that he would offer the sweets to them as a reward. (but actually being a Mr.Bean show we know that he would not). He just slam the door at their face. Without even a thank you. Naturally the carollers were stunned. But what is the heart of carolling? To proclaim the birth of Christ and the good news to the people. We seem to have lost that. Now, when we go around carolling, we expect to be fed. Some churches even charge money if you want them to go carolling at your house. It has been a fundraising thing.

Would we extend love to someone without expecting anything in return? Would we do things that we know will never bring a return. Infact, it will cost us but just to bless others. Would we have a program in the church like feeding the poor just for the purpose of meeting their needs and not to expect that we will increase in the number of salvation cases in the church. Or so others will know what a great thing that we are doing. To pride ourself in our ministry? Do we do things because it is our christian duty to do and therefore help us feel better because I am fulfilling my Christian duty. What is our motive.

Jesus never did anything for His own fufillment. He truly love the people. His motive will be people. To genuinely meet the needs of the people for their sake. There need to be nothing in it for Him.

I wonder in my own life how many things I am doing I have a motive behind. Whether obvious or not. I can subconsciously have a motive yet not know it. I have much to learn.