Motives

This weekend I was blessed to go on a weekend backpacking trip with my buddy John and his two cousins. It was in Southern Ohio about 40 miles south of Zanesville. The trail name was Wildcat Hollow. It was a 15 mile loop trail. We expected from what we heard the trail to be somewhat moderate and easier than others. We were wrong. We walked through quite a bit of mud which really helps to slow you down and tire you out quicker. There were parts of the trail that were overgrown with quite a bit of overgrown bushes etc. There were downed trees all over the trail where we had to climb over and crawl under. There was one particular part where 2 trees had gone down. One was high and one was low but they were right next to each other. After watching 2 of the guys maneuver around and under with their 40# packs on their backs, and seeing them getting stuck in between the 2 trees, and mind you these guys were much smaller than I, I decided I was going to get on my knees and crawl. Guess what I had to crawl through, you guessed it, mud. I survived and found myself laughing at what I had just done. Sometime later the trail became much tougher with several steep sections to climb. Now mind you, Im not talking about Mount Everest here, but for 4 out of shape weekend warriors it was a killer. After finally making it up the last of this grueling section we found ourselves in a beautiful area of pine trees with very soft pine needles all over the ground. It didnt take long for each of us to realize we needed to swallow our pride and drop our packs. I have found that backpacking is good to humble oneself. After about 1 minute, all 4 of us were prostrate on the ground sucking frantically for oxygen. I gathered myself a few minutes later to find enough strength to get my water bottle and drink the last of my water supply and layed back down. We layed there for about 30-45 minutes. After a while it became one of those neat experiences that makes backpaking worthwhile. I layed there under a large pine and looked up at the beautiful blue sky. One of the other guys said something like "now this is what its all about". We finally gathered enough strength to set out again. We had traveled at that point on our second day about 8 miles and we still had 2-3 miles left. About 1 hour later we found ourselves on the homestretch. One of the guys started talking about how he is always reminded of his mortality when he goes on these challenging trips. He started musing as we approached the trailhead that we should have someone there to applaud us for what we had just accomplished. As a group we started talking about how it feels to push ourselves and accomplish something like this ( ok ok I know its not like we just saved the planet). There is a sense of adventure to go on one of these trips and it does feel good to make it through. After just a few brief moments we found ourselves at the end of the trail. Another hiker who was sitting by his tent at a site right at the front began asking us how we did and we explained it to him. How we had started late the first day and only managed to get in 4-5 miles and that we had gone the remaining 10-11 miles the last day. He looks at us and says, " good job guys". We thanked him and walked away laughing to ourselves at how we had just talked about someone praising us for our efforts. As I have thought about that moment today, I could not stop thinking about wanting to hear when I get to heaven, "well done thou good and faithful servant" from my King. And I pondered all the reasons I do the things I do. What is my real motive? Do I desire the praise of others around me or do I simply wish to do those things that will please my God? Yes I mean my God. He is mine and I am his. You know, its not necessarily what things we do, sometimes its a better question to ask why do we do the things we do? Even something as wonderful as adoption is, something so near and dear to the heart of God as the care of orphans, if you do these things for the wrong reasons, ask yourself why. Do you think you can work your way into Gods good standing? Do you think you can earn your ticket to paradise? Please let me beg you to rest in the arms of God and he will carry you home. Its only by his son Jesus who died for me and you, to take our place for all the wrong we do, and yes that even includes good things for wrong reasons, that we can find ourselves one day hearing those words, "well done thou good and faithful servant". Do you want to hear those words? I have heard it said, that for a child of God, one of the most critical things to always do, is to examine your motives. So make sure you are following after the praise of the one who gave you life and sustains it, not all of us around you who are made out of the same dust of the ground as you are.