Thursday 9 August 2012

Motivation and Will

I've recently been thinking about the subject of motivation. Sometimes I have to do something or go somewhere and I lack any motivation to go or do that thing. If you don't know what I'm talking about I'm sure you're not human. We all have those times when we don't feel like doing anything. But we take it further in some areas of our lives. We feel entitled to motivation. A lot of times if we don't feel like doing something we simply won't do it and anyone attempting to compel us to is somehow in the wrong. Or how about the opposite end? What about things people are motivated to do, but shouldn't do? What about people who do evil things, but have an abusive childhood? In some cases people even can get away with things because of their motivations for doing things. But that is where I take issue.

Society sometimes treats people in the same way as animals. When a person is camping and leaves food out and a bear comes and rampages through the campsite, who is at fault? The person who left the motivation for the bear to do what it did. The bear does not have a will. It will act in accordance with its nature and its nature is to eat and be aggressive. That person gave the bear the motivation. But when it comes to our thoughts of justice and human behavior we sometimes take the same approach. The criminal is not at fault, the parents who abused him/her is. I'm sorry, it is a tragedy for children to be abused, but that person had a choice. They have a will, and they chose to act sinfully. Regardless of our past histories we are still responsible for our own actions.

It is because I have a will that I often do things that I have no motivation to do. But not always. I've been failing to regularly run lately and I'd like to blame motivation, but the truth of the matter is I have chosen not to run when I could have chosen to run. It is one of the primary things that makes us humans so complicated creatures. We can do things in spite of all our instincts, expectations, and histories. We can make a choice for good or evil regardless of our past and regardless of our future. Its a frightening yet beautiful thing and its a fact of humanity that theologians and philosophers have struggled with for millenia as pertains to human will and the divine will. And that is another subject that would take a book to scratch the surface. I'll put this much up there though. I believe we have free will, but I also believe God is sovereign. It is the interplay of those two facts that have given thinkers the world around such trouble and I'm not likely to resolve it for people. So go in God's grace and know that He is in control yet desires your surrender and submission.

For His Glorious Name,
Jason