What’s Your Motivation?

This week, I was able to play in a small golf tournament with my fellow United Methodist clergy. I love playing golf and I love the opportunity to converse with my colleagues while on the golf course. What I wasn’t expecting was to be paired with our new bishop for the North Texas Annual Conference, Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. I was a little bit worried because although I think of myself as a pretty good golfer, I have heard that our bishop is pretty good athlete having been a former college football player and coach. I was hoping that I would at least play as good as I normally do, but as anyone who plays golf knows it’s easy to have a bad golf game. I ended up having a pretty good golf game that day and if it weren’t for a downpour of rain cutting our round short, I could have even had one of my best. How I played that day is not what I will remember though. It was the conversation I didn’t expect to have.

Generally, when we find ourselves with someone of authority it can be intimidating to have a normal conversation. Whether you’re a student or an employee, talking to your professor, supervisor or boss can sometimes seem a bit scary. You want to seem competent and educated without coming off sounding like a suck-up; it’s a difficult balance to achieve. What I discovered during our 4-hour golf game was that I wasn’t just sitting in a golf cart with someone of greater authority than me, but someone who shared a similar passion, vision, and calling in life. I was blessed to have conversations about shared interests and other things we had in common. I realized that, yes, our bishop has been given authority to oversee the mission and ministry of our episcopal area, but he is also someone just like me doing their best to serve our God in the capacity to which he is called.

This experience had me thinking about the request the disciples James and John asked of Jesus, found in Mark 10:35-45. They wanted to know if Jesus would allow them to sit at his right and left in glory. In other words, they wanted to know if Jesus would elevate them to a place of great authority. Jesus responded to them that they did not know what they are asking because that authority is not something that is granted, but achieved through great sacrifice. If they wanted that position in life they would need to be willing to be servants to all.

Maybe there are people who would have looked at the opportunity I was given to play golf with the bishop as an opportunity to elevate themselves in the eyes of someone who had authority, but not me. I was more worried that I would make a fool of myself! I am thankful for the opportunity I had, because I got to know someone who has accepted the same calling in life that I did and has a servant’s heart.

What’s your motivation when you are in the presence of authority? Are you seeking to better yourself or are you seeking to follow the path of a true disciple of Christ to better the world? Join us this Sunday in worship at either 8:30 or 10:45 AM as we consider what mark a true disciples leave on the world.

In God’s grip,

Pastor Chuck Church