It didn’t matter how happy that YouTube exercise influencer sounded, I wasn’t motivated to do that workout. I looked down the hallway at my bed and wondered if it was still warm under my bedcovers. Still, I laced up my shoes and waited for the music to begin. Like a robot, I mechanically swung my arms as directed. My feet shuffled to the beat. My thoughts, however, continued to march to a completely different drummer. A steady mental cadence tapped demotivating thoughts. Quit-Now. Warm-bed.  No-one-will-ever-know. The pull to quit was so strong. But, I knew that I would feel better when I was done.

Motivation is a fickle thing. A funny thing, too. Like, why don’t I need motivation to eat ice cream? My favorite ice cream stand opened a few weeks before Spring officially started. I did not need any positive self-talk to convince myself to drive 20 minutes across town to stand in line (in my winter coat) to order an ice cream sundae. On the flip side, I own a 128-ounce water jug with positive reinforcement messages on the side like “you can do it,” “keep going,” and “stick with it.” I need water to stay alive… but apparently, that isn’t enough for me to want to drink it.

Here’s what I’ve noticed in my life:

Often, some of my most memorable blessings happen when I’m unmotivated to do something, but I do it anyways. Is this true for you? Have you reluctantly agreed to go to a conference, a meeting, or even a Bible study, and there was that moment when you heard, saw, or felt something that made a meaningful impact on your day or life? There’s something about doing it anyways…

Last week, I woke up on Sunday morning with an unusual heaviness in my heart. I didn’t want to go to church, but I forced my feet over the edge of the bed and fumbled my way to getting dressed. As I walked into church, a little mental drumbeat tapped Turn-around. Just-leave. No-one-will-ever-know.  Still, I wedged myself past a few people into a row and sank into an empty seat. A sigh escaped. Welp, God, I’m here.

I didn’t have anything to offer God that day other than my warm body sitting in that seat.

Forgive me for saying this, but that church service did not change my life. It didn’t. But, being present did shift something inside of me. Listening to worship, receiving God’s Word, and then feeling the love and energy of God’s people changed my attitude. By the time I left, my thoughts were in a better place.

Funny how I didn’t want to be there, but God blessed me anyways.

In John 1, Jesus invites strangers to become His disciples with the invitation to “come and see.” He didn’t require them to get it together or even fix their attitudes. Jesus’s invitation wasn’t based on a regimented schedule of daily Bible reading plans or rituals. He simply said:

“Come and see.”
John 1:39 NLT

Later, the disciples would repeat this phrase to others. They would beckon those who were curious, but also the unsure and maybe even unmotivated, to come near to Jesus. Picture the crowds coming toward Jesus to see Him and hear from Him. They’d see Jesus’s compassion and power. They’d hear Jesus’s truth and hope. No one was required to get themselves together before they showed up.

For so long, God’s people tried to find salvation in the scrolls of Scripture, but Jesus was the Savior they’d been looking for all along. Religious rituals could never reach into the hearts of people in the way the life-transforming presence of the living, breathing Emmanuel in front of them could. When the people came to see Jesus, the lost, hurting, tired, and broken were met with love from heaven that healed them from the inside out.

Jesus’s invitation to come and see is alive and well for you today.

“Come and see” is for the hurting, reluctant, exhausted (and even the religiously exhausted). If you’re tired of empty religion or fake Christians, Jesus wants you to experience what the pastor Eugene Peterson calls Jesus’s “unforced rhythms of grace.”

In the presence of Jesus, we stop striving for spiritual perfectionism and we savor His way of grace.

Is today your invitation to come and see, even if you don’t want to? Whether it’s tapping open your Bible app, stopping to pray, going back to your small group, or even saying “yes” to that women’s event, even if you don’t want to, come and see anyways.

Give God an opportunity to bless you.

 

Listen to today’s devotion below or wherever you stream podcasts.

 

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