Want To, Have To, or Get To?

What I should be looking like soon under my skin!

I mentioned in the previous post that I'm visiting the gym these days. It's good, really, I almost enjoy it some days, but it definitely is a discipline to get there. And there's nothing like the gym to remind me - again - that I'm a midlife survivor.

My fitness schedule is somewhat erratic, which suits me fine, and satisfies my people-watching curiosity. Late at night tends to be the middle-aged working folks, and the young unemployed. Afternoons are mixed, and the mid-mornings bring out the middle-aged and "mature" set to work out. (I have yet to try the 5am workout, but I'm told many do.)

I've decided there are essentially three types of people, who happen to fall into general age categories. The under-35 crowd seem to be there by desire. Most of them already look pretty fit, and are there because they want to be. My set is there, I think, out of obligation. We have this sense we know it will be good for us, and besides, we're paying the fee, so we'd better use it! It could also be that a spouse said, "I'll go if you go."

And then, there's the "doctor-says-I'll-die-if-I-don't-get-fit"/post-heart-operation crowd. I'm most impressed with these folks. They are there for survival. Yes, it's for their own benefit, but also for others; not to show off to others, but to stay alive for them. That said, I've never seen them break a sweat.

I'm reading this great book right now called, The Reason for God, by Timothy Keller. In a section on God's grace he refers to "the threat of grace". That is, if we properly understand and receive grace, we recognize we have no rights to our own selves, because none of our own efforts saved us, not even being a "good, moral Christian". It's only by God's gift of grace.

I've done a few good deeds in my life, and hope to do more. And the Bible promises reward for that. But not salvation. It's not like going to the gym. If I work out consistently and persistently, I'll be rewarded by a healthier (still middle-aged) body. My health is "saved" by my "works". I work out to get healthy, not because I am healthy.

But under grace, my deeds are in response to grace, not to acquire it. It's not because I want to or because I have to, but because I get to. I'm "not my own", as the Apostle Paul said, for I have been "purchased at a high price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I'm saved so I can do God's good works - works he's even prepared for me (Ephesians 2:10) - not because I do them.

I go to the gym out of both obligation and compulsion, because that's what middle-aged guys do. In some ways, my spiritual life sounds like that too, but only if I misunderstand grace. Yet because there's no way for me to impress God, I can relax in the confidence of knowing I'm still very flawed, and yet very loved, and completely accepted by grace.

Trust me - I'm surprisingly slow in grasping this. But when I do, the motivation for pleasing God is no longer "have to" or even "want to", but completely "get to".

What's your motivation?