The Ways of Power and Influence
To the Western ear a “gift” given with the clear intent to secure a favor or benefit sounds more akin to a bribe. We’d be less than honest, however, to pretend that our own motives in giving are always pure.
Have you ever given a gift to a boss or co-worker in hopes of gaining favor? Have you ever gifted a neighbor in hopes they might one day feel obliged to pick up your mail or newspaper while you go on vacation? And even when the giving is a two-way exchange, have you ever felt that twinge of disappointment when the gift you opened is in some way less than the one you gave?
Do-Overs
Author Dr. Seuss says in his book The Lorax, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
Perhaps you've heard the inspiring story of former Mayor Anthony Williams. Williams was born to an unwed teen who gave him up. He was known as a "problem child" in foster care. By age three, little Anthony had still never spoken a word. It seemed that a pattern for his life was set, that is, until two warm and caring people took a chance on him.
Anthony was taken in by an opera-singing postal clerk and her equally generous-hearted husband. He soon began to speak and eventually thrived in their home. He excelled academically and later attended both Harvard and Yale Universities.
In 1998, he came from obscurity to win 66% of the vote to become mayor in one of the world’s major cities. In his inaugural address, Williams said: "Forty-four years ago, my parents adopted me and gave me a second chance. I feel this city has now adopted me and I will give to it everything my parents taught me about love, service, commitment."
It’s no doubt that, had he never been adopted into his particular family, Williams life would have been wholly different. He was saved by a second chance. He got a do-over on his birth family.
Haven’t you been given do-overs on relationships, jobs, blown opportunities and the like? Haven't you benefited from the generosity of someone who cared? Hasn't God been generous toward you, granting you countless do-overs?
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" (Colossians 3:12).
Smiling, Happy Faces, Filling a Void, Accomplishing Nothing
If you’ve ever been to a Costco to shop, you know that you cannot leave the store without showing your receipt to an exit attendant who will dutifully match your receipt against the items in your cart to be sure you haven’t “forgotten” to pay for anything.
Well, a recent trip to the retail giant produced quite a Wait. What?! moment as we were exiting the store with our full-to-overflowing shopping haul.
The friendly, smiling exit attendant asked for our receipt, and we promptly produced it. She scanned the receipt, then our cart, then the receipt again. She then humbly apologized that it was taking so long, informing us that she just needed to find the rib roast (we know — a BIG extravagance!) we had just paid for. After another moment, she said, again with a big, bright smile, “Ahhh, there it is! Have a nice day.”
Then came the, Wait. What?! moment.
She was supposed to be looking first at our cart, then comparing the items in our cart to what was on our receipt, not the reverse, looking at the items on our receipt to see if they were in our cart. She had gotten the proverbial cart before the horse, or in this case, the receipt before the cart!
Clearly, this bubbly, smiling attendant didn’t quite grasp the concept of the job she had been engaged to perform. We can just hear the convo in the break room: “I don’t understand why everyone is so worried about shoplifting. I’ve been working here for a month now and I’ve never found anything even remotely suspicious.” Well, no wonder … you’re so kind, so polite, so well intentioned, but you’re not doing your job correctly!
She was motivated to find items we’d paid for, but might have forgotten, while the management wanted her to be motivated to find the items we might be taking that we hadn’t yet paid for.
Sadly, she was a smiling, happy face, filling a void, accomplishing nothing.
As believers, we engage in acts of service and devotion every day — in our homes, our churches, our places of employment, our communities, with nothing but the best attitudes and the best intentions. Yet we are often no more effective in our acts of service and devotion than that confused Costco attendant was at performing her one, very simple task.
Why? Because motivation matters!
Scripture is clear, anything not done in love, is useless.
When religiosity replaces relationship or rote actions replace agape [God's love], we become nothing more than smiling, happy faces, filling voids, accomplishing nothing.
Let everything you do be done in love [motivated and inspired by God’s love for us] (1 Corinthians 16:14, AMP).
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, NIV):