What Makes You Tick?

Recently in the theological research course I teach, I gave a brief talk on motivation and other qualities essential to writing a research paper successfully.

One slide of the PowerPoint presentation I used was a grouping of cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat, Wiley Coyote, Elmer Fudd, and the Grinch. I asked the students to tell me what makes each of the characters tick. The answers are obvious: Bugs Bunny loves eating carrots, Sylvester has the goal of catching and eating Tweety, Wiley Coyote loves the idea of catching Roadrunner, Elmer Fudd loves hunting and dreams of shooting Bugs and Daffy, and the Grinch delights in the thought of ruining Christmas.

The students seemed to enjoy the little exercise, and while I had their attention, I asked them, "What makes you tick?" The idea was to get them started thinking about what it is in life that motivates them to do what they do and to be who they are.

Another illustration that makes the same point is the clock. But instead of saying, "What makes a clock tick?" since that obviously has a double meaning, I asked, "What is a clock's reason for being?"

Obviously, the answer is to keep time. But there are those of us who keep clocks even when they don't keep time, maybe because they look good, like the little crystal clock I keep on my desk, or maybe because we like the sound they make, like the cuckoo clock my in-laws keep just because they like the cuckoo. The question to ask ourselves, then, is: "What is my reason for being?"

Hopefully, it's not just to look good or to go cuckoo.

The answer for us Christians is easy: our reason for being is to love and worship God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That means everything else is extra. It helps us set our priorities and keep things in proper perspective. To put it simply, I revert to my favorite saying, even though I've said it so often it borders on being a cliche: "Will it matter in heaven?" Hopefully, if our motivation truly is to do only what will count for eternity, we will be inspired not only to make the best choices but also to keep on going regardless of any discouragements or setbacks...

...even as Wiley Coyote refused to allow any mishaps -- falls over cliffs or packages that explode -- deter him from getting back up and trying one more time to catch that ever evasive Roadrunner.