What gets you going and keeps you moving passionately? What’s the biggest consuming force in your life?

Is it WINNING, gaining and keeping advantage over others, knocking off opponents one by one, comparing yourself to others? Winning is finite and fickle. Finding success and then surviving it for long is like trying to hold water in your hands.

Is it POWER, getting and maintaining control over everyone and everything else? Power undoes the powerful, you know. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Is it APPROVAL, having the wide applause of men? Sooner or later the world finds others to follow, to support, to cheer. And when it does, the soul crashes, alone more than could be imagined. 

Is it PLEASURE, finding leisure, food, drink and entertainment to be so fulfilling that you’ll sacrifice much to get it? Comfort kills. It emasculates. Beware. Pleasure fades and more satisfies less. 

Is it FEAR, driving one to fight or flight? Often these fears become irrational, making one punch his own shadows or run from the light, not toward it. And fear of failure (not having what it takes) paralyzes. Fear of success (having what it takes) often paralyzes too. Fear is a manic motivator. 

Is it HATE, maniacally wanting to exact revenge on anyone who stands in the way or denies you? Unrelenting hate kills the bearer, not just the recipient. 

Or is it LOVE, purely, selflessly sacrificing for God and others?

Martin Luther King Jr. issued this famous line: “I have decided to stick to love … Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

Winning, power, approval, pleasure and fear produce awful burdens too!

Yes, of all the things that keep us going, STICK WITH LOVE. Love alone bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). God says that all else fades. 

So get on the love train and stay there. Let love get you going and keep you moving for a lifetime. Let it fill you every day … just like Jesus. 

Reflect: Is love the primary motivating force in your life? What other motivators in your life (like winning, power, approval, pleasure, fear, hate) are getting too much playing time? Where does love need to step in and hate (and other motivators) need to go?

A prayer to consider: Heavenly Father, I see Your heart of love for me and this world, especially in Christ. Release me from carrying the unnecessary burdens that other motivations besides love always produce. I would be like Jesus and stick with love. 

By Your Spirit accomplish this in and through me. For Jesus sake and my joy in You, I pray. Amen.