Playing a song or playing the piano

My youngest granddaughter likes to pretend she is playing my piano when she comes to visit. It really is just noise. One day she asked me to teach her how to play a song. So i showed her the notes on the piano to Frosty the Snowman and she could memorize well enough to play that one song. She is back visiting for Thanksgiving and said again, "Pop, can you teach me another song?"

We were a few minutes into learning Rocking Around the Christmas Tree when i noticed she was a bit frustrated with memorizing another song so I said, "you know, you are learning to play a song but you are not learning to play the piano." She looked at me a bit confused and I said, "if you learn to play the piano, you will be able to play lots of songs, anytime you want even without my help."

Her reply, "then teach me to play the piano." I did and now she plays many songs from the freedom she has because she discovered how notes on the page point to keys on the keyboard.

This little life example has profound implications for us all and the reason i am writing my book "stuck in stinkin thinkin - The Divine alternative".  I have found that because many people just focus on learning to play a song (knowledge and rules to do a task), they do not do the work of learning to play the instrument (discovery). Thus it is with Grace. Many people are stuck with playing out life from their human nature (carnal mind) occasionally doing some Spiritual activities to pretend they are playing grace. My desire for all is to learn to make sense of life through the instrument of Grace and not the human imperative of social exchange and justice so that joy, freedom, significance, and hope are your song played out in every way.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

stuck in stinkin' thinkin' about motivation

It has taken me quite a bit of thinking to identify stinkin' thinkin' about intrinsic motivation. The idea that intrinsic motivation is "scratching the itches of our soul" versus extrinsic, where putting forth effort to receive rewards from the world around us, is as far as I had taken it. However, in my book I am writing, I was faced with the question if intrinsics are ever carnal and if so, what is the difference between carnal intrinsics and and Grace intrinsics? The following is where I have landed. Its been an very interesting thought journey to get here. I would like anyone's thoughts on this exert from my book draft regarding clarity and completeness. You know - making sense of things is what the book is about :-)   

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I would suggest first that extrinsically motivated behavior is carnal minded in the sense that it requires exchange of one’s behavior for reward from the world around them. Intrinsically motivated behavior is a bit more complex. Whether the motivation is from a carnal mind or Kingdom mind depends on the nature of our intrinsics. If our purpose, meaning, and enjoyment in life are satisfaction gained from meeting our need to be significant through our own actions, we are intrinsically motivated to scratch self-serving itches and our well-being depends on the impact we make in the world around us. Viewing this through the lenses of Equity Theory of motivation, the carnal mind sees more effort is necessary to produce an outcome that is significant in their world, which creates for them a desired sense of happiness (referent). Making sense of intrinsic motivation through the Kingdom mind involves understanding the outcome of one's effort is independent of context (the worldly situation) and focused on the outcome of pleasing God, resulting in joy (referent). Apostle Paul says in his writings to the Corinthians that we seek (our intrinsic motivation) outcomes that are eternal and invisible resulting in an ambition to please God. Of course, we know from the famous passage in the letter to the Hebrews that without faith it is impossible to please God. Thus, we can contrast the carnal sense of intrinsic motivation from the Divine alternative using Equity Theory of motivation in following way:

It is interesting to note that there have been many books written to encourage people to seek purpose in their lives as their ultimate ambition. Some, like Buford’s “Halftime,” focus on significance not worldly success as a higher order need in our human existence. While I cannot speak to the authors’ sense-making assumptions that are at the root of theses messages, I can say that the appeal to significance to produce a happy and fulfilling life is carnal minded when our significance is defined by our impact on the world around us. This notion of significance as purpose is so stealth that many, many Kingdom dwellers are deceived to believe significance is their ambition, putting them in bondage to the results of their actions, not the faithfulness of them.

making sense of hypocrties

A hypocrite is one who pretends to be something they are not, taking from the root word meaning actor. The normal application is the criticism of Christians who pretend to be something but acts differently than what they purpose they are. "Christians are just such hypocrites", claim critics of God. Even Noah Webster's original English dictionary published in 1828 defines hypocrite in these terms, "one who has the form of Godliness without the power, one who assumes an appearance of piety".

While the word hypocrite is a general sense of one appearing to be what they are not, its interesting that the culture applied it to a specific kind of pretending, one who is not a Godly person but presents them self to be. I think there is a more powerful application for the word hypocrite and its really the reversal of its normal use.

My experience shows me that there are many Christians who are hypocrites, but not in the way the world means it. Christians are adopted children of God. they have every access to the provisions and privileges of the King. BUT, they rarely act like it. Christians who were once orphans, now live in the mansion on the hill, but mainly don't act as if they believe their new found fortune.

The King who has the mansion on the hill wants more than anything for their adopted child to feast at His table and to dress in the clothes He provides. Yet, what does His children often do. They abandon the provisions and privileges of the King, put on their old rags and go back down into the garbage heaps of the world and act like they are still orphaned, living off the paltry provisions of the street. They are pretending to be an orphan when they are actually a child of the King.

I find this form of hypocrite to be more profoundly evident than the cultural application perpetuated by a carnal minded world. Wouldn't it be interesting if when people criticize Christians they would really be saying, "look at those Christians, they are such hypocrites, they are adopted children of the King of this Universe but they act like they are still an orphan. How silly and foolish of them!"

Just imagine that!!!!

scratching the itches of MY soul

Those who have set under my teaching have heard me frequently express intrinsic motivation with this phrase about the itches of our soul. Human psychology associates intrinsic motivation with directing our personal attentional resources towards behavior that rewards us internally through enjoyment, purpose, and meaningfulness. I believe that intrinsic motivation is the basis by which we play out what God has put in us. In my scholarly and Biblical study I believe that our calling is primarily driven by these internal motivation factors more so than talent, skills and giftedness because these direct our effort, abilities do not. Paul would say he was compelled to go here or do that or say this. Compel is the force of intrinsic motivation. Many have heard me say that the South Alabama meaning of compel is "can't not do it."

I am currently being overwhelmed with the calling to take a message to those who have ears to hear. In my soul I feel I am at a pinnacle of understanding a few key insights that can transform people's lives. In my university teaching, my small group discussions, and teaching Bible study, a clear message has emerged that has impacted people's spiritual walk in very tangible positive ways.

This message is basically this :
 Christians spend much of their study acquiring more knowledge, but knowledge alone has little motivational power. Its when we discover truths that can be applied to our psychology to think, feel, and choose differently that we are truly transformed. One of the ideas we learn from Scripture is that we have a carnal mind (old man) that represents our thoughts, feelings and choices influenced by our flesh or our human nature. We also have a Kingdom mind (new man) that is given to us by God as we become His adopted child. Our dilemma is that as we grow in our head knowledge of grace, we are influenced by our nature more than we know because we know very little about it except that it is at enmity with God and it is so natural to us.
For example, two of the theories of human behavior that explain how our nature works are Social Exchange Theory and Equity Theory. Social Exchange Theory states that the force that holds relationships together is the value that passes between them. Basically, we give to get and we are obligated to return when we receive. If we apply this natural way to make sense of our relationship with God we become legalistic and CANNOT make sense of our self and the world around is through the lenses of Grace, and thus fail to fully realize the privileges and provisions of the Kingdom of Heaven. This has nothing to do with our salvation but has everything to do with the quality of our Christian walk and testimony. Its what would make us different from the world. I believe that Social Exchange is so subtle and so natural that it provides a competing belief system to the Gospel of Grace and wars against our Spirit in a stealth way. Once we grasp this nature in a conscious way, we gain a freedom to make sense of things through grace and we experience more joy, hope, and significance. 
In a similar way Equity Theory is our nature to demand fairness. This is ever present in our sense making and its so natural that we give it the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval and never question it as being carnally minded. The futility of sensing we fail God and do not deserve His favor robs us of the joy and freedom of Grace and leaves us frustrated in our guilt. Gaining an understanding of these natural forces at work in our sense-making, of which we really are unaware, renews our mind to be informed by grace, which is the opposite of Social Exchange and Equity judgments. 

I feel so compelled to engage people with this message. I know I need to establish mechanisms to do this. Obviously there is much more to this message than what I could share here so I know I need to write a book on the contrasting models of carnal and Kingdom minds in sense-making. I need to deliver workshops to people everywhere I can. I know I need to coach individuals one on one who desire special support to applying the basics of this message. I need a website and other structural aspects of a ministry. I know this whole endeavor is risky from a human point of view. I don't know if anyone will publish or buy the book or whether anyone will attend a workshop or desire coaching, but i know that in my 4th quarter of life, I must do this. Dudley Hall once defined passion as "that which propels us through obstacles as if they were not there in the quest for the object of our love." Passion is intrinsic motivation on steroids!! Passion is the heart and soul of calling. This is my calling and so I am compelled - the real risk is NOT doing this :-)

"weak and worthless elementary principles of this world"

I have definitely entered the fourth quarter of life and feel compelled to be the most strategic that i can be. I have raised kids, been a business professional, and engaged bible study for much of my life. In the more recent years I took the path of academia to develop a more disciplined way to think about human behavior and to teach it to college students. I believe I am at the pinnacle of my life's journey in understanding the tension involved in being in this world but not of the world.

I have seen evidence all along life's journey that what God has put in me has power to transform lives. I find I am more capable and passionate to help others move beyond the "weak and worthless elementary principles of this world" (Galatians 4: 9) to a life model that is strategic and nourishes the soul's well-being. To be faithful to my calling I have found closure to my full time faculty position that was extremely rewarding and productive to develop a full time ministry that broadens the network of people's lives I can intersect with the message God has given me to profess.

In the months ahead I will provide details of the form this ministry will take. I do know the theme will be applying the Kingdom mind to make sense of personal and professional headwinds through teaching and coaching. Making sense of our life and the world around us through the lenses of Grace rather than our human nature (social exchange and obsession with justice) is transformational. More over, a transformed life is the greatest witness of the hope that is in us.

Everyday I think about the bondage that people live in because they are slaves of "the weak and worthless elementary principles of this world." Most of my life has prepared me for this moment. I have done some things right and I have made many mistakes. God has redeemed all of this to bring me to the fourth quarter.

If you have enjoyed and been blessed by my blogs, I think you'll find the next step to be quite exciting. Stay tuned - more to follow :-)