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Motive

A little over a year ago, my eighth-grade class was studying character motivation. During the introduction of the idea, I tried to bridge the notion of character motivation to our own motivation. Knowing a person's motivation, I tried to stress, allows you to glean something about that person's character. The example I used was unintentionally self-revealing. What if, I said, a person entered the room pleading that someone outside needed immediate medical attention. One person whose motive was duty might think it morally right to lend assistance, but may have no real concern for the person. The person would go, perhaps begrudgingly, as though it was a necessary act. The victim, to him, is simply a receptacle into into which he pours his skill or aid, a mere opportunity to demonstrate his own value as a human being. His motivation is self-interested. The next person, on the other hand, might genuinely care about a victim's life and so leave in haste out of his or her desire to see the victim restored. This second type pours into the other, not for recognition, but because he truly wants the victim to be safe again.

While the outcome of an act may be the same (in the case of the medical emergency, the person's life is saved), the difference in value assigned to the person is enormous. No personal relationship-- friendship or otherwise-- can last if it is built on duty. The one gets tired over time, or the other learns by the person's behavior that he or she acts out of self-interest. There is no room for real human connection in duty, and no awareness of the person as a human being. This seems to be the message of First Corinthians 13:3: "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Motives, of course, aren't always so easily identified. The Bible says as much in Jeremiah and Proverbs:

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure ["desperately wicked" in the King James version]. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

"There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death." (Proverbs 16:25)

This, I know, is one of the reasons to spend time reading the Bible and in prayer. Time with God like this fine tunes your awareness of him and of yourself. While the heart may be beyond cure, we can gain a greater understanding of our motives and ourselves. The importance of this knowledge is significant when you consider that your motives form part of your character. A later proverb says that "as water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man" (Proverbs 27:19). Why we do what we do matters.

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