Good question, Joy
My friend Joy posed an interesting question on her blog: What about mixed motives? You're doing something good and you have some good motives, but you also have bad motives, which may even cut in and take charge of the good--what do you do?
Here's my attempt to "keep the conversation going" (i.e. to answer):
What you're talking about is tricky business, to be sure. I've come to think "mixed motives" (depending on how we define that phrase) are an inevitable part of life, especially Christian life. There's just no getting around it: We need others, especially the Other Himself. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, no one can claim to love God disinterestedly. We desperately need Him, and to deny it and come to Him saying, "I don't need you--I love you only because I choose to, disinterestedly" is nothing short of madness. This same God whom we desperately need is the One who has constructed the universe such that good actions, in the immediate, often receive good reactions and are, in the end, rewarded in grand and unimaginable fashion. So what I'm saying is that the whole universe seems to slide in such a way that good action are rewarded with good reactions--which naturally predisposes us to have mixed motives. All of this, in short, is what makes me think mixed motives are generally inevitable and generally okay.
Still, though, we must never let our guard down entirely. There are of course wrong motives for doing right things, and sometimes those motives can be so wrong, they entirely blot out any good native to the original act. For example, it is okay to enjoy the praise one naturally gets from maintaining so brilliant, articulate, and crisply-written a blog as, say, this one, but it is shameful and inexcusable vanity to blog ONLY for the purpose of making people think you are really smart, philosophical, or deep. (For more on egocentric blogging, check out the site of my dear friend, Gabriel Peterson. [jk, buddy, jk])
All joking aside, the danger is indeed quite real. Thus the guarding against alterior motives is a never-ending task. We must ever be wary.
How do we battle against mixed motives? Spiritual disciplines...
All right, the semester is long, and my sleep cycles are disruptive. You folks have a good night. Peace!
Here's my attempt to "keep the conversation going" (i.e. to answer):
What you're talking about is tricky business, to be sure. I've come to think "mixed motives" (depending on how we define that phrase) are an inevitable part of life, especially Christian life. There's just no getting around it: We need others, especially the Other Himself. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, no one can claim to love God disinterestedly. We desperately need Him, and to deny it and come to Him saying, "I don't need you--I love you only because I choose to, disinterestedly" is nothing short of madness. This same God whom we desperately need is the One who has constructed the universe such that good actions, in the immediate, often receive good reactions and are, in the end, rewarded in grand and unimaginable fashion. So what I'm saying is that the whole universe seems to slide in such a way that good action are rewarded with good reactions--which naturally predisposes us to have mixed motives. All of this, in short, is what makes me think mixed motives are generally inevitable and generally okay.
Still, though, we must never let our guard down entirely. There are of course wrong motives for doing right things, and sometimes those motives can be so wrong, they entirely blot out any good native to the original act. For example, it is okay to enjoy the praise one naturally gets from maintaining so brilliant, articulate, and crisply-written a blog as, say, this one, but it is shameful and inexcusable vanity to blog ONLY for the purpose of making people think you are really smart, philosophical, or deep. (For more on egocentric blogging, check out the site of my dear friend, Gabriel Peterson. [jk, buddy, jk])
All joking aside, the danger is indeed quite real. Thus the guarding against alterior motives is a never-ending task. We must ever be wary.
How do we battle against mixed motives? Spiritual disciplines...
All right, the semester is long, and my sleep cycles are disruptive. You folks have a good night. Peace!
posted by Peter Rice at 4:44 PM
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