What are our motivations?

This week we hear Jesus teach the disciples about what it will cost them to follow him and, more generally, to respond to the vocation into which they have been called. While Jesus uses some extreme language here, he is not so much telling all those who might follow him that they will have to despise and cut off from their loved ones and families, but is rather asking them to be clear about their motivations for following before they take on their vocation as disciples. And, of course, there is no one way to be a disciples. Even the 12 who followed Jesus until his death had their own ways of embodying and living out their vocations. Some preached, some taught, some wrote, some healed, some travelled, some counselled, but all were clear on one thing: why they were doing what they were doing. This week, Jesus asks those gathered with him, and us, not to give everything in our lives up, but to be honest with ourselves about our priorities and motivations for doing what we feel called to do in our lives. Take some time this week to reflect on places in your life where you are feeling tension, especially around your vocation, your job, or a new venture you are starting. Why are you doing what you are doing? Maybe the tension is arising from your motivations? How could a shift in your intention, or priorities, transform the energy of this undertaking?