In our culture we talk about someone who has high motivation as being driven. I was having a conversation with a young man the other day about the concept of being driven and he viewed it as a positive quality. So, here’s the question, is drivenness (noun) a virtue or a vice?
As a business owner who has been involved in recruiting and hiring, I love it when I see a highly motivated person. I suppose it comes down to what is motivating you. This is what James says:
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” James 4:1-4
The dictionary definition of drivenness is, “being under compulsion, as in to excel or succeed.” Is your compulsion to succeed rooted in some fear or craving or are you motivated by an earnest desire to please the Lord?
I think of the biblical virtue of diligence. In Proverbs it says, “The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.” Prov 12:24
It seems to me the difference between drivenness and diligence is one of lordship and stewardship. If Jesus is Lord and He owns my life, my future and my time then I want to be diligent for Him. I’m highly motivated, but my motivation comes from a place of peace a place of rest. He’s in control, his hand is on me.
Well, you might say, this is just semantics, shouldn’t one just be driven for the Lord. Well yes, except for the fact the the Lord doesn’t drive us he leads us, He guides us. Even when the Bible does speak of a yoke, Jesus says, “take my yoke upon you…” He shares the yoke with us, He says my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Mt 11:29). Diligent or driven? Let me ask the question a different way: Is your yoke easy or hard, is your burden heavy or light?
