"Motivation for Living the Good Life"

During this pre-Christmas season you may hear this Christmas song lyric:

“You better watch out You better not cry Better not pout I'm telling you why Santa Claus is coming to town He's making a list And checking it twice Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice Santa Claus is coming to town He sees you when you're sleeping He knows when you're awake He knows if you've been bad or good So be good for goodness sake!

“Be good for goodness sake”— sounds more like “be good in order to have Santa judge you nice and for you to get something from Santa.” At first you might think, “that sounds harmless. It’s only trying to keep young children in check during a very harried time for their parents. But just think of this motivation for living an ethically good life. You better be good because if you do you will get all the goodies! Surprisingly a whole lot of adults who don’t think too deeply believe that is the reason for their living a good life. They just make Santa Claus God and then reason “if I want to live with God forever I need to live a good life. The problem is that in their daily life they find it impossible to be good all of the time (as kids do). When they fall short they may just turn inward into themselves and feel guilty. So guilt becomes the motivator for Christian living. Is that good—or appropriate for Christmas or anytime of the year?

Written for children in 1933 Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots, this song probably wasn’t intended as a moral essay. It may seem innocent enough, for after all children respond to “law.” But educators tell us that so much of what we learn and know comes from these early years. Are we to merely give in to “moral development” thinking for a time and then try to motivate by grace and gratitude at a later time. If we are saved by grace, and not by our good works or deeds or behavior, then we should be consistent about our message from the earliest time. “You better watch out” may have the ring of an Old Testament prophet but as we probe deeper it means something very different. It is more like “so all you little girls and boys...Beware, take care, Of the Green-eyed dragon with the 13 tails, He'll feed, With greed On little boys, puppy dogs and big fat snails.” Hardly motivation for Christian living!

Grace—not guilt—should motivate our seeking to live the good life. We ought to do our best because God loves us and forgives us, even when we are naughty or bad. Parents ought to tell their children “you should be good because we love you and want to have a great celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas.” When we grow up, and inevitably screw up, then we will see God as some kind of Santa Claus in the sky who has all the goodies and demands a better life from us but as someone who has given us a second chance, even after crying and pouting and being naughty and bad.” For grace, not guilt, remains the best reason for living the good Christian life!