Motivator, Please

Hebrews 10:22 -- "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith."

Spoofs of Star Wars number in the thousands. In fact, Star Wars Spoofs spawn spoofs of their own .... so there is ample material out there if you want to find any kind of reference to the hit Sci-Fi classic. Even the most obscure movie references can be located on the world wide web of ours - all you have to do is Google.

One of my favorite Spoofs/Star Wars Reference is a stop-motion show that uses manipulated action figures and some surprisingly intricate set designs. In classic Lucas fashion, a plastic Luke Skywalker walks into his family's living room to find that one of the Droids he and his Uncle recently purchased is laying on the sofa watching television. Luke asks the Droid why he's not out in the fields harvesting the crops. [To which crop Luke is referring, I'll never know. They live in a desert.] The Droid proceeds to surf channels using a TV remote. He then responds: "too hot. Not feelin' it".

I bust out laughing.

Luke then turns his back on the Droid and hollers out; "Uncle Owen, this one's got a bad motivator!"

Yup. Comedy gold.

Now - anytime we, the Dalton gang, have something to do - some task to accomplish - we all quote the Droid. "...not feelin' it". To which one of us will usually reply "do you have a bad motivator?"

And isn't THAT the truth? So very often I find myself with a busted motivator. How many times do I catch myself saying ..... "....not feelin' it?" I actually surprised myself one day by keeping score. The results were a little intimidating.

Faith - is NOT emotionally motivated. Faith is sturdy. It's built on pilings that go so deep into the ground that they might actually pop out on the other side of the globe. In fact, in Hebrews we learn that Faith is THE thing that gives us a true heart. It is also in Hebrews where we learn that Faith is the substance of things hoped for. [Hebrews 11:1]

So - our faith is what gives us a true heart with substance. But having faith isn't really enough. It's the object of our faith that makes all the difference. And - in terms of faith - we can be assured that our feelings [or our bad motivators] aren't what saves us. It's Jesus. So we can toss our bad motivators out the window. Chalk up those couch potato moments to a bad hair day and keep right on truckin' because our Jesus is impervious to bad hair days. Let's face it - he's already had THE worst one imaginable and came out victorious.

So, indeed, - let us draw near in the full assurance of our faith in Jesus Christ. Clinging to that truth - we can even ask our Lord: "pass me a new motivator, please."