It’s not uncommon for those birthed into the Kingdom of God to go back to practicing the external driven-life. The Galatian Christians tried to mix the driven-life with the following-life and Paul’s rebuke to them was the key to my own personal acceptance of the miraculous, Christian Gospel. He said, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying…

The undriven-life is a peaceful though dependent one. The driven-life can’t be peaceful because it’s rarely at rest because peace comes through activity and activity empowered by your own resources is eventually exhausting. Following Christ requires discerning His call to act and this discernment is honed by knowing what He values and what He doesn’t value. In John 15:16 Jesus says, “that your fruit should remain.” Use this to begin to decipher what sorts of works are of the eternal kind. Are your works the burnable wood, hay, stubble or are they those which remain: silver, gold and precious stones? When I designed what Bethesda Pregnancy Services would focus on…

At 22, I suppose I was unusual to take on such a multi-faceted task as founding and directing a crisis pregnancy center but once you’ve become driven to do good, nothing is too daunting. Good works are like an energy drink—they fuel you. They also tick a lot of those boxes which are common motivators for most endeavors: public approval, happy and grateful customers, a sense of purpose, a creative outlet and money. I volunteered; I felt that to accept a paycheck diminished the goodness of the work but the other motivators were there, lurking, in my subconscious. Prayer? I didn’t pray. Though I’d been a born-again Christian for five…

In a nutshell, this is the driven-life: “That’s what Christians do.” No sane person would question the relationship between doing good and Christianity. The two are inseparable; one cannot exist without the other, right? A more important question is, “Can I do good without Christ?” The driven-life sources its power to “do” from your personal resources. You see, you think, you decide, you do. You drive it all, from conception to birth. The following-life sources its power to “do” from Christ. You see, you pray, you obey. You humbly accept that you don’t know what is good or nice; only Christ knows and you must follow Him. “Remain in me,…