The Undriven Life—The Christian Difference, Part 6, by Carolyn Cote
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 years, prayer wasn’t a priority. I couldn’t figure out how to move God’s hand with it so I shied away from practicing what was bound to leave me disappointed when the answers to my prayers didn’t materialize. Two years into the ministry I had decided to call Bethesda Pregnancy Services (Bethesda means “House of Mercy”), I was heading out the door of my home to make an appeal to our local school board to teach abstinence. I knew the meeting could go really well but that most likely it would not. I thought I should pray so I knelt at my living room couch and made a quick appeal for God to allow the class to be taught. As I grabbed my things and headed out the front door I thought, Well, even if He doesn’t answer, I’ll make it happen.
This is what the driven-life looks like at its core—I.
Self-conceived, self-confident and self-reliant. The driven-life has its own life verse, “Therefore I will boast in my gifts and strengths so that I can do good things for God . . . for when I am strong I can get things done—all by my own power.”
A symptom that you are living a following-life is reliance on God through prayer. You know you are weak and you glory in that state of reliance. The only life verse for a Christ follower is:
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me . . . for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Cor. 12:9-10
