I was taught early on that how I lived actually mattered.
In fact, I was explicitly told that my decisions, my actions, my attitudes, my words - even my thoughts - carried weight. And I was encouraged to make sure that every part of my life was an outgrowth of my faith. I didn't really grow up asking, "What would Jesus do?" But I did grow up asking, "What would Jesus have me do?" And that might be an even better question. The goal, as I understood it, was a coming together of all that I believed and all that I did. And when those two things came together, I was approaching a place of consistency, integrity, and wholeness.
Frankly, that was plenty of motivation to live in a certain way. It was never easy to live in a completely consistent way, of course. But at least the motivation was clear. Even more, the motivation was compelling. I simply assumed that living out my faith was a good thing. And the value of doing that was beyond question.
Interestingly, there was also an added motivation - not that any extra motivation was really needed. Still, it was always there. In addition to Jesus' call and in addition to this drive for integrity, there was always this added thought: don't forget, someone is always watching the way you live.
When I was younger, it was easy to discount that claim. I recall thinking often how silly it was to imagine that anybody would be watching me. As I grew older, though, and as I gained more responsibility in life, I began to see the truth of the claim.
Somebody is, in fact, always watching. And everything that we do is teaching somebody about our lives and our faith and our values. Which, of course, reminds us of the special responsibility that is ours to live in a certain way.
I would think that God's awareness of our lives would be motivation enough to live a life that would be pleasing to him. And surely it is. Beyond that, though, there is this extra motivation. Everything we do, everything we teach, everything we model, everything we complain about, everything we celebrate, everything we worship, everything we ignore . . . is helping somebody else figure out how to live.
We might want to believe that we have very little influence over others (because that absolves us of responsibility), but the truth is that our influence is immense. And that's true for every one of us.
It's good to live a life of integrity. Living that way, in fact, brings joy to God.
But living a life of integrity also changes the lives of others. Just in case we need it, we have some extra motivation to live in a certain way.