Hi. I'm in a phase of trying to "find" myself. I believe in God, I know for a fact that He is REAL. I'm in my last year of undergrad and everything is seeming to happen all at once. I want to start meditating after or before I workout..but I want to keep the motivation. I have a problem with speaking something and doing it for awhile but always end up quitting. I truly want to be a better me and create the best connection I can with Him.
I really like this new meme that is circulating around the interwebs- the “you gotta” meme.
Though this meme is usually used in humorous and slightly self-deprecating contexts, it’s also useful in motivating me to do things I don’t necessarily/immediately want to do but I know that are good for me.
When I wake up in the morning, my first instinct is to look at my facebook notifications or my tumblr reblogs. My first instinct is not to say “thank you” to God for bringing me to a new day or open my Bible to read my scriptures and my strength for the morning.
And since we’re (to a point) autonomous human beings, our very human instincts almost always win out. In this case, your instinct to stop doing activities when you’re bored or tired of them seems to keep winning out.
But when we employ such a simple concept like the “why? you gotta!” meme into our lives in the ways that we want to live, I think, we are able to overcome our human instincts.
For me, I gotta go through the steps.
*8:00 AM alarm*
*Wakes up*
*Rubs sleep out of eyes*
*Turns to phone to check ‘good morning’ text, facebook, email, and tumblr*
*Stops myself*
”Girl- you may not want to read from the word of God right now…”
“But you gotta.”
*Reads Bible and is instantly thankful*.
Now, I don’t want any spiritual activity or any leisurely activity to be a chore for you or for me, don’t get me wrong.
I do want to say that the things that make us better are not the things that are easy. It’s not always easy to keep God at the center of or lives. It’s not always easy to want to exercise every day.
And since it’s not always easy, we often serve our immediately-gratified flesh and let ourselves slip.
But through the power of “you gotta” and the motivation of the Holy Spirit, I truly believe we can do whatever things we put our mind to. We can do all things in Christ who gives us strength, a la Philippians 4:13.
Sometimes, especially in Christian contexts, the “you gotta” is enough. It happened when Jesus himself prayed in Gethsemane.
Jesus: “Let this cup pass before me, Lord.”Father: “For the sake of this forsaken world, my son, you Gotta.” (paraphrased, of course)
And He did and it was finished!
When we have chosen to follow Christ, we have chosen to get over our wants and our whims and our whimpers and our whines and understand that to truly grow with Christ, sometimes you just gotta. You just gotta read your Bible (even when you don’t want to). You just gotta keep in prayer continually (even when you think you have better things to do). You just gotta keep in humility (even when you think that all 7,841 selfies in your iPhone are the cutest). When you ask for His will to supersede your way, understand that the concept “you gotta” will be a major part of your life. Now, again, “you gotta’ doesn't necessitate a chore; I truly believe that “you gotta’ is an exercise in obedience.
I think spiritual growth parallels our feelings that we had as kids when we were in the 3rd grade and we didn’t want to do fractions (because it was: too hard, too time-consuming, too useless). The fact of the matter is that if our parents and our teachers let us stop doing fractions just because it was hard, long, and seemingly pointless, we wouldn’t grow. We wouldn’t have made it to college and we wouldn’t have been able to unlock various pathways of knowledge if the adults in our lives didn’t say “you gotta”. And if finite human beings who know more than us can enact that much development in our physical lives, how much more so can the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God enact much development in our spiritual lives?
Use this. Remember this. The walk with Christ is not easy- but when we have decided to carry the cross and bear the name of Christ, we understand that when we ourselves don’t have the motivation to go on for any longer, we have the Holy Spirit to lead us through.
Now, sometimes the Holy Spirit can motivate you to move or act or grow with Christ physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
But sometimes, He speaks loudest through “you gotta, my child”.
You just gotta.
- 31Women (Akua)