What Motivates You?

I was in a job interview the other day and the person interviewing me asked “What motivates you?” I know it’s kind of corny but I looked outside and saw the sun shinning on a bare cold branch and it made me smile. No one had ever asked me that question before and it was not until he said it that I realized how simple the answer was. My surroundings motivate me. Something as minor as a standing tree enduring the blowing wind and planted strongly in the blazing sun made me feel like I could ace that interview and I am happy to say that I did. :-)

The things, people and situations that surround us tend to push our emotions into a certain direction. Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to get out of bed in the morning on a rainy day? Or how about when you hear a certain song and it reminds you of the summertime? Well that’s kind of what life does to us. I had one of the worst days that I had in a long time today. (Compliments of my top 5 haters…thank you, thank you, you’re far too kind) It was like they were everywhere trying to smile in my face or make some smart comment. At one point I just had to laugh because I truly could picture myself resorting to violence. I did my best to try to shake it off but today I just wasn’t in the mood to play the “Keep the peace game” with a bunch of lames. I was tired of them. I was tired of them trying to sabotage my relationship, ruin my friendships, poison my image in efforts to destroy my ministry; I was tired of being the target. It absolutely drained me. My surroundings motivate me but they also discourage me.

The love of my life has recently taken up photography and went out and purchased one of those fancy cameras to support his new vision. The other day he was showing me how the pictures that he takes are better when the camera is set to manual. How could that be I thought to myself. When the camera is on automatic it does all the work for you. You just focus the lens on the scene and take the picture. If you don’t like it, just take another one. I did not even know that there was an option of switching it into manual in the first place, but he explained to me that when you manually operate the camera you pull in the natural light within your surroundings and it shows a new level of beauty. Today was a sad one for me because I spent the day taking automatic mental pictures of the poisonous snakes that God has allowed in my presence. I had to take the shots over and over because none of them seemed to capture the true and raw pain that they have inflicted upon me. However what I should have been doing was manually drawing in the natural and pure light that God had placed in the cracks as a reminder that he sees my suffering and he will make it beautiful.

What motivates you?

“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy”
Psalm 126:5


Log on to the website and take a look at the new episode of Jles The Diary Radio Show. This weeks topic is "I Miss Men"