I grew up in a time when church frequently included special gospel meetings that featured a guest preacher imploring over the course of a week to get right and reap the rewards of heaven or certainly go to hell. Night after night the message and volume would escalate until a satisfactory number had responded to avoid the punishment of hell.
As a result, my upbringing most of my Christian life has been spent figuring out what “get right” means. My relationship with God was shallowly based on a set of rules based more in the tradition of my recent ancestors than the Word and Spirit. It took a couple of family tragedies and a tour to combat for me to reevaluate and search for a deeper foundation [Christ] for my relationship.
The struggles of my God relationship search came flooding back as I read Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us in which he presents a compelling case for a deeper method of personal, peer, and subordinate motivation. I was struck with how closely the history of motivation parallels the Bible story and my story.
Pink contends that human motivation has evolved from a basic needs model, to a “carrot and stick” model, and as he proposes, to a more stable intrinsic model. In modern vernacular he labels these models in the style of a progressive human operating system upgrade: Motivation 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.
Motivation 1.0 (biological survival): The original (ancient) motivation was based on the drive to survive, pushing humans to seek food, water, shelter, protection, and procreation. 1.0 correlates with the Bible story of the creation of humans, life in the garden, and human creation struggling to regain a lost relationship with God
Motivation 2.0 (reward and punishment): As more sophisticated societies developed and human desire became more complex (and distant from God) human drive developed to seek reward and avoid punishment. Pink identifies people motivated through external factors as “Type X.” As God brought the Israelites out of Egypt he instituted a system of laws and blessing with a clear message: obey my laws and you will be blessed but disobey you will be punished (ultimately removing his presence from them). Motivation 2.0 was used in the workplace through the 20th century but was also invoked during the “hell, fire, and brimstone” gospel meetings of my youth. Sin you go to hell, don’t sin you get to go to heaven. Motivation 2.0 doesn’t work well for long term commitment, the kind God is look for from us.
Motivation 3.0 (intrinsic): Intrinsic motivation is based on the inherent satisfaction received through autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Satisfaction is our reward. Pink identifies people motivated through internal factors as “Type I.” Intrinsic motivation moves us from mere compliance (Motivation 2.0) to commitment. When Christ established the new order with a promise of a fresh relationship with God. The laws became “written on [our] hearts,” he removed the laws and focused us instead on a deep love for God. The key components of motivation 3.0:
- Autonomy – the urge to direct our own lives (or faith)
- Mastery – the desire to get better at something that matters (Holiness)
- Purpose – The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves (God’s will)
Jesus preached motivation 3.0 in his “sermon on the mount” recorded in Matthew chapter 5 when he spoke of internalizing the Motivation 2.0 laws of Moses. He taught that instead of not murdering (Type X) to not even be angry (Type I) and instead of not committing adultery (Type X) don’t even look at someone else with lust in your heart (Type I). He went on to describe Type I attributes relating to oaths, divorce, enemies, prayer, retribution, worry, and discernment.
Perhaps the moment that best illustrates the coming and monumental change was when the Pharisees (the masters of Motivation 2.0) asked Jesus about the commands that were important. When he answered he established that unless we love God from within, there is no power in obeying the laws.
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22: 34-40 (TNIV)
Jesus has called us to be Type I Christians, motivated by the autonomy of our faith (that is, a faith that is our own, not of our ancestors), mastery of God’s will in our lives, and the purpose of glorifying Him for eternity.
“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.” – Stephen R. Covey
Shalowm.
I have been struggling with motivation, I am not depressed or anything, rather I have identified “negative drivers” I used in my youth that fed my ego, fear and pride. The ego or identity of course merely serves itself and in time kills the very thing it aims to promote and protect. So, I am, for some time now concerning myself to switch off from competing with others, preserving and promoting myself in fear of rewarding my pride. This effectively puts me into a holding pattern at condition one. It is a struggle to stay in status, giving any glory to God while slowly dying inside, causing the humbling and wanting provided by motivation 1.0.
Finding how I can provide motivation, drive and general self satisfaction for the right reasons with out it effecting pride is my greatest challenge, my fear is if I don’t crack the balance in time I will be conditioned to being an unmoved, unmotivated, senseless slob. This clearly is not the greatest outcome and surely God designed me for something else.
As the three levels of motivation have been described The Humane Operating System up grade 1.0 – 3.0, it seems alright to use as I described “negative drivers” fear, fight, flight, brought on by OS 1.0 for living and working in our daily lives, when clearly our lives are not in danger of anything other than competing and surviving in our modern world. The struggle is to fit a square peg into a round hole; to be a Christian in the modern world, putting myself last but at the same time being a progressive and productive human being. How can I do this without being hurt through the induction of self preservation in condition 1.0 all the way through my development to a satisfied and successful sense of self in condition 3.0 of which in nature is a pride that seeks to protect itself?
From your comment I understand you might be holding onto the fear of pride of accomplishment in human terms, thinking it is contrary to God’s will. You should consider what pride is warned against in the Bible…that is pride in your own righteousness and capabilities over exalting God. As you indicated in your comment, God grants us talents for use to his glory, many of which also grant us success in the world. God does not want to deny us success by worldly standards he only wants us to glorify Him in all situations. He does not want forced glory because we fear punishment if we don’t (2.0) only that we love him deeply and commit all that we do to Him (3.0 = autonomy, mastery, and purpose). The fact is we live in this modern (some would say post-modern) world because God placed us here. We can please him nonetheless and exalt him instead of others or ourselves. With God there is no square peg or round holes…only HIM.