What Motivates Us?

Jeremy was a big, handsome Black man of 23 years who wanted to join the US Army.

He was friendly, animated, and relaxed. As we talked I felt an  immediate attachment. This guy has some college behind him I  thought, but there was something more.

He admitted to having been arrested for class 2 burglary. “What’s  that?” I asked. “Tell me about it.”

“It’s entering without permission and without force,” he informed.  “But the charges were dropped for lack of evidence.  I was 13 at the  time.”

“No fine?”

“No, and no court costs.”

We went on. Everything else was “clean”, no drugs, no alcohol, no  tobacco, two years of college. Everything was in order.

When I listened to his heart and lungs,  I couldn’t miss the bulging  pecs and other muscles that made him look like Michelangelo carved him out of ebony.

“Looks like you spend lots of the time in the gyn,” I reasoned.

“Sure do, I love body building. That’s why I’m so clean; clean body, clean mind, and clean soul.”

“Sounds good to me,” I responded. “That’s really important for living a great life. How did you get started with the program.”

“Easy, I started lifting weights and loved what it was doing to my body, so I thought I shouldn’t be putting things into it that were going to make me less healthy. Make sense?”

“Sure, you’re going to have to live in that body all your life, might as well take good care of it!”

“That’s what I though; then I thought I needed to have the best mind to keep up with my body so I started to read books, and stopped the violent video games and all the junk that’s on Facebook and the web. I even took two years in college. It took me four years to get that done with working and lifting, but it was worth it.”

“And, where does your soul fit in?” I asked.

“When I’m lifting I have lots of time to think so I started to think how did I get the body to live in and where did my mind and everything else come from. That made me think about church and God so I decided I needed to go to church and thank Him for everything I have. Now I pray every day, and go to church every Sunday. I know that I’m not a perfect person, but I am better than I was before I started body building, and I try to get better every day.

”That why I’m joining the Army. I want to do something important with what God has given me. And I think the best thing I can do is help defend this great country he gave us to live in.”

“And that all came from lifting – body building?”

“Yep, that and the time to think!”

Since that conversation I began to think what motivates me to be a better person, to have a better mind, and try my best to keep this old body going?

What motivates you?

Some credit our moms or our dads (Remember this is Father’s Day  weekend). Think about it and have a great celebration Sunday!