Motives are mixed because in people that’ s what motives do: they confuse themselves and work out in all kinds of actions. Probably the best way to stop God’s work is to sit down and wonder why one is doing what one is doing. Who can be sure?
Sometimes we sit doing nothing, examining our hearts until the moment to act is past, fearful that we will do something good with bad motives. This is a special insanity that inflicts the overly scrupulous and the bookish. We want to be right and not just do right. This is noble, but often we end up being wrong and doing nothing. The starving man does not thank us for refusing to feed him. Bread from a man with mixed motives is no more nutritious than bread from a mixed up man.
Whatever we try to do, you will find someone who questions your motives, usually with some justice. Jesus was perfect and history tells us:
As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”
This criticism has some validity against anyone who is not the Son of God. Perhaps, a very tricky demon possessed man was casting out demons by the prince of demons. They missed the possibility that they were dealing with the perfect God-man, but it is hard to blame the critics for that error. Instead, we can wonder why they missed that fact that good was being done. The man set free was not complaining. If a mute person can speak, he will not start speaking by questioning your motives in healing him.
We can be sure Jesus had perfect motives, but the rest of us are generally a mix of good and bad reasons for what we are doing. People are such a mixed bags that skeptics can plausibly argue that people do not do anything from good motives. Ayn Rand finds selfishness at the bottom of every deed. Maybe more of what we do is more selfish than we would like to admit, but I doubt it. We are broken and so unlike Jesus, nothing we do is perfect, but act we must.
Let’s feed the poor . . . and worry about the motives after they are full.
Let’s stand against racism . . . and question our motivations as justice rolls down like water.
Let’s love our neighbor . . . and contemplate our imperfections as we cheer her up.
There is a wonderful scene in the musical Music Man where the woman of the town criticizes “old Miser Madison.” The hero responds by asking: “You mean the Madison of Madison Gymnasium, Madison Park, and Madison Library?” It is hard to be a miser when you are providing the town with a cultural infrastructure. Who can know his heart? While considering his heart, somebody should have thanked him for his generosity.
God judges the heart, but we can only judge our actions and that is true of our own actions! We need to do right and then be right. Often the “being right” follows the hard work of doing right. We are sinners . . . and can always pray for forgiveness, but meanwhile let’s go feed our brother in need. Saint John reminds us:
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
We are not perfect, but God will take what we do for Him and make it His own. He will make our hearts right because He is greater than even our mixed up, silly, hearts.
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