Maintaining Motivation

Corporate "firewalk" ends with burnt feet

 

(Reuters) - A "motivation day" organized by one of Italy's biggest real estate agencies ended in tears and scars when nine staff had to be treated in hospital after walking barefoot on a bed of hot coals. Alessandro Di Priamo, a former athlete now turned motivational trainer for companies, said the nine salespeople from the Tecnocasa agency had suffered light burns and none were seriously hurt.

"Firewalking helps people overcome their fears, seek new challenges and understand that most of what they see as their limits are self-inflicted," Di Priamo told Reuters. He said the hotel near Rome where the exercise was held used the wrong kind of wood and some artificial coal without him knowing.

"I have done this job for 12 years with thousands of people and never had a problem. I myself walked first on that bed of burning coals and didn't feel anything -- in fact that same evening I went for a 16 km run," he said.

 

Hebrews 10:24-25 (NLT)

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

What does God’s Story scripture teach us about motivation?

Part of our responsibility as followers of Jesus is to motivate other followers of Jesus to continue to be faithful in ‘acts of love and good works.’  The author of Hebrews tells us two ways that we can provide that motivation.  The first is to never stop coming together.  One of the trends in Christianity today is to claim to be a Christian yet choose not to be part of a church.  However, to do this is to shirk part of our responsibility as followers of Jesus.

The second way we are to motivate each other happens as a result of continuing to come together.  We are told that it is important for us to consistently encourage one another.  We should not pursue relationships just for what we can get out of them; rather, we should always be looking for ways to build up others.  As we make it a practice to do this, it will help us to stay faithful to Jesus until he returns to gather his followers to himself.

How can we connect God’s Story scripture to our lives?

It is important to remember that the only reason we can do good works and encourage others to also is because of the work that Jesus has done for us.  The verses preceding these tell us that we can have confidence to come before God only because we have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and given new life in him.

If we fail to remember that our works must be a result of Christ’s work, then we are only living under a set of rules.  This is not what God wants for us; instead, he wants us living in a true relationship with him.  The habit of coming together with other Christians will encourage us to remember that Christianity is about a relationship, not a set of rules.

How can we connect today’s story, God’s Story scripture, and our story to others?

The motivational technique of walking on coals in today’s story was risky, causing several people to be injured.  Similarly, the motivational technique of Christians coming together for encouragement can also be risky.  Often times, church can become focused on the wrong things, and relationships between Christians can look just like relationships of the world.

It may be that your friends’ view of the church and Christians is negative because of past experiences they have had.  Maybe they were part of a condemning church or were hurt in relationships they had with Christians.  If this is the case, help them understand that the motivation of a church or a Christian isn’t always perfect, but that Jesus’ motivation of love secured the opportunity for them to experience new life through a relationship with God.