What Drives Your Life?

Driving forces, motivations, whatever they are called, they separate the life that is going someplace intentionally from one just drifting along with the current. Some motivations are positive, some are negative. Most are hidden in our subconscious until something brings them to the top of our mind.

At the end of Chapter 3 (on page 27) of the booklet, "What On Earth Am I Here For?", Rick Warren asks, “If you asked your family and friends to describe what drives your life, what driving force or motivations would they mention?”

I recommend that you take his challenge—ask someone close to you what they think it is that drives you.

I did that myself, and the answers my wife gave me were both insightful and not that surprising. We’ve been married a long time. She knows me very well. There are some positive motivations and some negative ones. The important thing was the conversation that opened up after she answered my question.

What we discovered in the conversation that followed was that some seemingly negative motivations also have a positive role to play in daily life. Being motivated by fear sounds negative, but the fear of failure prompts many of us to work hard to succeed.

Warren lists these motivations which drive some people’s lives: guilt, resentment, fear, materialism, and a need for approval. What other motivations can you think of?

What would you say it is that drives you? What do others say?

Warren says that knowing your purpose in life (and living according to that purpose) has some benefits: it ...

· gives meaning to your life
· simplifies your life
· focuses your life
· energizes your life
· and prepares you for eternity

Leaving aside for now the question of what is your purpose in life, ask yourself which of these benefits are apparent in your life.

Are any of these benefits absent from your life and at this point in your life are very appealing to you? It may be that this is the reason you find this study interesting. God is leading you to break from your routine and seek some answers. The end result could be very beneficial to the rest of your life.

Warren mentions a “final exam”, an “audit of your life”, quoting Romans 14:10b & 12. He says we can infer from the Bible that two questions will be on the exam:

1. What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?
2. What did you do with your life?

This study should prepare you to answer those two questions eventually.

For now, just answer whether you agree that these two questions will determine your eternal fate, and whether you think other questions should be on the exam?

Or, do you think there will not be an “exam” (that is that God will not place any requirements on entry into heaven.

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