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 :-)