Be A Little Selfish
Second reference under “commitment” in the topical guide: Deuteronomy 6:5. It’s under commitment as “love the Lord thy God with all thine _heart_, and with all thy soul, and will all thy might”. It also references chapter 10 verse 12 with the similar “serve the Lord God with all thy _heart_” then moves into 26:16 with “keep and do them with all thine _heart_”.
Commitment lives in the heart.
Now Chapter 6 holds all kinds of commandment/blessing pairs. Keep all his statutes and his commandments/thy days may be prolonged. Observe to do it/ye may increase mightily in the land that floweth with milk and honey. The chapter is essentially summarized in verse 24: The LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always.”
Yet somehow the message didn’t sink in with me until I started reading in chapter 10.
Verse 12 phrases it as a question. I replaced “Israel” with my name and it made it much more personal:
“and now, Israel, what doth the LORD they God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul”
Pause.
As far as rhetorical questions go, this one is not doing so well. The first few words “what doth the Lord require of thee” sounds like my mom trying to downplay how long it will take to do the dishes.
“How long will it take you, like 2 seconds?”.
Problem is, the rest of the verse hits so heavy.
“C’mon ALL the Lord is asking is for you to fear him and commit your entire life and every waking moment to him. To take every breath and use it to serve him with all that you have. It’s no biggie.”
But it _is_ a biggie. And yeah, I get that the correct answer is to say yes. But honestly, the part of me that’s gotten very comfortable in my current life rejected it a little bit. Like, MAN that is so much work. So much effort. Ugh.
Luckily I kept reading to the next verse.
“to keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes,” (further ugh, but here’s the good part) “which I command the this day _for thy good_?” (emphasis added)
This is all for our good, not necessarily God’s.
The part of me that resisted following God was the selfish part of me. Yet, what would benefit me the absolute most? Following the commandments. Every dream I have, every goal I want to achieve, will only be MORE attainable if I follow God.
Suddenly, the selfish side of me was aligned with my better self.
I think this element of commitment and motivation applies to more than just spiritual commitment.
Struggling with motivation to exercise? Think of the benefits of a more fit body. Extra attention from the opposite gender. Less back pain. I’m pretty sure it’s even correlated with work success.
Need motivation to study? Again, get selfish. Consider the cash you’ll make with your degree. Or the job opportunities you’ll get with your excellent grades. Whatever.
Of course, this can’t be your only motivator. You’d be a sociopath. But we condemn selfishness so much that we start to think we aren’t allowed to want things for ourself. I think that’s the first thing that pushes us in any direction. It’s not bad to want a better life. It’s good to want to use that life for others.
Struggling with motivation? Get selfish. Doing good will bring back good.
