How A Christian Should Not Motivate
During many years of counselling people with personal problems
, the issue of being burdened by unrealistic expectations often came up. Sometimes such issues would haunt peoples lives even at a high age. They would feel that they were not able to fulfil what was expected of them. Parents often expect of their children to be able to do things that the parents themselves were not able to do. They need to excel in all sorts of things that they are not really up to. It is like the farmer expecting of his milking cows to be able to run and win horse races, which they obviously cannot do, just as much as his horses would not do well in the milking parlour.
But then, parents sometimes do not give up that easily. When they realise that their little milking cows are not all that good in horse races, they feel compelled to do some motivating.
Now the times and area that I grew up required for motivation to include a little more than words. If daddys little milking cow did not feature in the main race, daddy motivated little milk cow with a thorough spanking. But little milk cow was not born to win races, and no matter how good a milk producer little milk cow was, that did not matter.
But this is not what this article is about. This is about how the same principle is applied in the adult world. Only now, we include some additional elements. At times we practice some psychology, and at other times, when required, we do some manipulation. The reason is that when we want those cows to win races, we make them believe that they are actually horses, but we retain the right to turn them into milk cows when we require some more milk.
Put very bluntly, some leaders manipulate their followers in such a way that the followers believe they are being motivated.
When, you may ask, is it motivational to get somebody to succeed in a task, and when is it manipulation. Basically you motivate a person when you influence him or her to do something that he or she wants to do and is inclined to do. This milk cow was born a milk cow and has the intrinsic abilities to be a milk cow. The task of the motivator is to get the milk cow to understand the principles of milking, believe in itself and become more successful in delivering milk.
But this is not the case with the manipulator. The needs of the manipulator are not satisfied by milk cow just delivering milk. Manipulator also wants milk cow to do something that it was not born to do, namely winning horse races. Poor milk cow can sometimes become so confused that it takes many hours of counselling to restore its initial orientation.
The point to remember is that milk cow is not a lesser creation because it can only deliver milk. Delivering milk is its creation purpose. Winning horse races is a task that race horse was created to fulfil. But manipulator cannot afford both milk cow and race horse, so he buys one, and manipulates it to the point where it does both jobs half measure. Can a milk cow be a good race horse? No, it certainly cannot be. Can milk cow deliver optimal milk production while it is on an exercising programme to win horse races? No, it will not work either.
Hence, what is manipulator really achieving? For the sake of his own selfish urge to have his needs fulfilled, manipulator is creating unrealistic expectations which milk cow is required to satisfy.
By now you may be thinking author, where have you ever experienced such a situation in life? The fact is, not only have I often come across this, I have met thousands of individuals that fell prone of such motivation.
According to the Bible, you can only become a Christian, [perhaps better described as a disciple of Jesus Christ], after you were born again. John chapter 3 verses 3 to 5, clearly teaches that you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without having experienced rebirth. Up to that point you may be a church member, or not. Maybe you admit to being a sinner, or not. Whatever your belief system and spiritual orientation, the Bible declares that you cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born again. Now, can this be so difficult to understand? Milk cow you are, and milk cow you will be, unless you experience rebirth and become a race horse.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV) The transformation from being a sinner and becoming a reborn child of God, [Christian] is as radical as changing from a milk cow to a race horse.
What the church needs today, is NOT more money, better subsidies from government, or a tax relieve scheme. All of those will be nice, and come in handy, but what the church REALLY needs, is born-again Christian members.
But why then, you may ask is so little time dedicated to rebirth in some churches, if it is such and important qualification for entering into the Kingdom of God? The answer is really simple. Church leaders are afraid of loosing its members if they insist that rebirth is the entry qualification. Brother and sister milk cow might be offended, and after all, the Pastor flourishes on the income received from brother and sister milk cow, as well as all the other milk cows. We cannot afford to go without their offering. So what do we do? We change the rules to fit out own standards.
We design a new set of standards, declaring that milk cows may now also enter horse races. We even coach them cows to walk, talk and behave like horses. Man, from this day on, you are a horse, because I said you are a horse.
But are you really doing the poor milk cow a favour? Can you, Pastor [Reverend, Priest, or whatever your designation] really affect entry into the Kingdom of God, or are you only manipulating milk cows into believing they can win horse races? Jesus boldly declared that He is the way, the truth and the life and that NOBODY can go to the Father except through Him. He, the same Jesus who said you must be born again in order to enter into Gods Kingdom.
In the end, these manipulated milk cows are not happy to be milk cows anymore, because they are told from the pulpit that they are not good enough if they remain in sin. However, if the occasions are not created for them to come to the realisation of their sins, and the need for rebirth, their only defence is to pretend that they are race horses.
A very dear old friend, who really loved Jesus, told me how he would visit his grandfathers farm as a child. Near the kitchen door stood a huge thorn bush, and when his grandpa heard that little Wynand was coming to visit, he would take some raisons and push them onto the thorns. Then his grandpa would take him outside, lift him onto his shoulders, and allow him to pick raisons from what Wynand as a child truly believed to be a raison tree.
Then, a few years later, grandfather took Wynand to the tree again one day, but there were no raisons, and the child could not understand why the raison tree did not yield any fruit. Then his grandfather took him to the vineyard, and showed him how grapes really grew on the vine, and also explained the process of turning grapes into raisons.
Then his grandfather explained to him that, no matter how hard he tried, the thorn bush could not yield anything but thorns, and the only way to have grapes, from which raisons are produced near the kitchen door, was to uproot the thorn bush and plant a new vine in its place. Then he went ahead and used that example for young Wynand to understand the significance of rebirth. At the age of eight that child accepted Jesus Christ as saviour, and went on to live a full life in service of the Lord. He was involved in missionary work until his death, and always used the example of grandfathers raison tree to explain the importance of rebirth.
Why would you continue to pretend that you are a race horse when you are still a milk cow, or a raison tree when in fact you are a thorn bush. There comes a day in the life of every living soul when God will confront him with what he did with the invite of Jesus: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30 KJV)
Do you still want to go on pretending to be a race horse, or are you ready to admit that you are a milk cow in need of rebirth?
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? (Jeremiah 12:5 KJV)
by: Dr Gerrit van Vuuren
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