What
Motivates Us?
Amos
4:1-5, 5:21-24
What motivates us? Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), was an American
psychologist best known
for his theory of needs. Maslow said we
must satisfy our most basic needs before we can be concerned about our more
advanced needs (see diagram). We see how the needs proceed to higher levels as
we move up the pyramid.
On
the bottom are physiological needs:
food, water, shelter—those physical elements we need to sustain
life. If we are hungry or thirsty we
can’t think about much else. On the
little lake in back of our house Mary and I often see ducks diving for
food. This is the major part of their
existence. They must find food in order
to live, so food becomes their priority.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army
understood how needs work. He said, “You
can’t save a person’s soul until you clean him up and feed him.” Maslow said much the same thing from a
secular point of view.
Amos, the Hebrew prophet, wrote and spoke during the 8th
century B.C.E. He was a contemporary of
Isaiah. Coming from the southern kingdom
of Judah, he prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel. As with so many immigrants today, his
presence and his message were not looked upon favorably by the locals.
Israel was experiencing a time of peace and
prosperity. Everything was going
well—for the upper classes. The “cows of
Bashan” Amos speaks of are the wives of the political and religious
leaders. These leaders are robbing the
poor of the little they have, and the wives are demanding more. Amos condemns the upper classes: the wives for their greed, and the husbands
for their willingness to satisfy that greed.
A chapter later Amos gives them God’s opinion of their
worship practices. God begins, “I
hate…,” not, I believe, the words any of us want to hear from God. This God, who the apostle John tells us is
love itself, despises the hypocrisy of the leaders of Israel. They worship with their mouths, but not with
their hearts. They have defined their
ethics by their appetites. They have not
risen above the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid even though those needs have been
over-satisfied.
When one has enough, but keeps crying, “More! More!
More!” she is bound to her lower needs as surely as the one who has
nothing. Both are starving.
Adlai Stevenson said, “A hungry man is not a free
man.” It doesn’t matter whether the
hunger comes from need or greed, the one who is constantly hungry will never be
satisfied, never be free to pursue love, belonging, esteem, or
self-actualization. He will continue to
be enslaved. What a tragedy!
We know what God wants.
Amos reminds us of what we have been told many times. God demands justice and righteousness—justice
for all out of the righteousness we receive from God. Unless we commit ourselves to universal justice
we remain in bondage to our basest natures.
Until we achieve justice for all there will be justice for none, and the
cows will continue to demand more.
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