Motives

Motive – a reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious.

This was not a good school year for me. It was one of those springtime days where I didn’t feel like doing my schoolwork. It had to be at least 90 degrees outside and was even hotter inside. The windows were wide open, and there was no breeze flowing through the classroom.

Our music teacher, Mr. Eigler, gave us a relatively easy assignment. All we had to do was listen to a selected composition by Mozart and then write down what we felt the music was saying to us. That should have been easy enough to do, but I was not in a writing mood.

There were three smart girls who always competed with everybody in the classroom. They grabbed their pencils and started writing as though it was a writing competition. They labored with their thoughts. They erased and rewrote. One even drafted her notes, tore out a clean sheet of paper, and began to write a clean copy. For sure, they would all get A’s, as they always did in the other classes.

As I warned you; it was not a good year for me and writing was the last thing on my agenda that day. I refused to prove anything to them or anybody else. They looked at me in disgust because I just gazed out the window and wrote absolutely NOTHING! They whispered among themselves about what I was not doing. They pointed their fingers and laughed at me, and said, “Surely you’re going to fail this assignment.”

“Is that your business,” I snapped? “What do you care if I fail this assignment. So SHUT UP!” Mr. Eigler never said a word. Besides, it was too late to start writing now. The song was almost over.

I thought that stupid composition would never end and when the music finally stopped, the smart ones sat up like peacocks. They were ready to turn in their papers in hopes of surely reaping their expected rewards of an A.

Instead, Mr. Eigler did something completely different. He asked everyone to read what they had written. I was terrified. This was a first so I had to think quickly. I was prepared for an open rebuke and embarrassment in front of my classmates.

While some only wrote a sentence or two, others wrote full-blown paragraphs. When asked who was willing to read their papers, smart girl number one volunteered to read her paper first. She read her article as though it would become a number one best-selling novel. After she finished, she put her paper down, folded her hands, and smugly looked at me. I rolled my eyes at her and looked back out of the same window I had been staring out of just five minutes before.

After all the volunteers read their masterpieces, Mr. Eigler called on those who did not volunteer to read their creations. I was the last one. When he called my name, I panicked and had to quickly think about my next move.

Now the man was no dummy and knew exactly what I had done. I turned to face him, picked up my BLANK sheet of paper, and proceeded to read aloud what I probably should have written. I eloquently spoke of the pretty evergreen trees that never lost their color in the wintertime. Although stifling hot, I spoke of how the clouds in the pretty blue sky presented a sense of coolness. I talked of the chirping birds and how they responded to that lovely day. I even spoke of Mozart, imagining that he wrote this masterpiece in the same setting I just described. I talked so much rubbish that I even believed what I imagined I could have written.

The three smart girls laughed at me. They even tried to tell the teacher that there was nothing written on my paper. He ignored them completely. Five minutes before the dismissal bell, Mr. Eigler decided to announce our grades openly rather than collect our papers. He recited the grades of every student in the same order they read. So, this meant my grade would be announced last. Here I go again. I braced myself for the embarrassment, afraid of the laughs and teasing that would probably last for days.

Each one of my three intelligent friends received a B plus. When he called my name with a corresponding A, you would have thought a war was about to break out. They were so angry with me and demanded the teacher collect our papers. Again, Mr. Eigler ignored them and dismissed the class as the final bell rang.

Have you ever intentionally exposed anyone? What was your motive? Proverbs 16:2 — People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives.