The Motivation, It' s All You
Submitted by teri on Thu, 2010-02-18 00:46
So I find out that Sean Algaier from Biggest Loser Season 7 (the one where the finale was this past Nov or Dec) was coming to our church to speak to the youth. If you that watched that season, then you know that Sean is a youth pastor and that he and his partner sacrificially asked to be sent home so that another contestant, Shea, could stay. That whole thing was heart wrenching, but an absolutely beautiful picture of laying down oneself for another. Anyway, I was hoping to be able to talk to one of our youth pastors to see if I could maybe meet him and possibly even talk to him for a minute. What was really, really, cool was that before I did, they invited me to join them and Sean for dinner before the service so that I could meet him and ask all the questions I wanted. How cool is that? Pastor Jake & Hannah, if you ever read this, I can't even express how awesome it was that you thought of me! Thank you!
We had so many questions for Sean and he just let us shoot them away at him. He answered every one elegantly and honestly. The one thing that I wanted to blog about though, was in regards to motivation. I asked him at one point what has kept him motivated. I have been on a plateau for about three weeks now and have been starting to feel less driven than before. He didn't get to answer right away, but when he left to go to service he stopped at me and addressed it. He said, " I just want to encourage you. The motivation, it's all you. You just have to find your inspiration." This sounded like some wise words of wisdom.
So, when I got home I looked up both words in the dictionary. Motivation: 1.The act or process of motivating. 2.The state of being motivated. 3. Something that motivates; an inducement or incentive. They are all about being driven. Which is what we do. We drive ourselves. No one else can make us do it. We have to do it. So then I look up inspiration and among the obvious (an action, thing or person that inspires) was this: a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.
Whether or not Sean meant to be that profound, i do not know. But I am glad he said what he did. When we allow God to directly and immediately influence us, He becomes our inspiration. I just loved this. I will definitely be praying and meditating on this. Having motivation is nothing without inspiration. And I'll leave you with that.
My father-in-law posted this
My father-in-law posted this on my Facebook page in response to this post. It's such a great response that I just had to post it with the blog:
No body can make you do the hard things in life, you have to want to do them. People can influence you and help support you along the way. But you will have times to carry the load by yourself. Pray for those times that God will be with you. You have done a great job. Keep it up. Were all very proud of you.