Hold On! Eyes on the Prize?
Meshivat Nefesh #45
What drives me to seek to serve G-d?
Am I in it for self-satisfaction? For pleasure? For expectation of reward?
Because sometimes it’s not so pleasurable, and sometimes I might even start to think that the debts I owe are going to outweigh the reward that’s coming to me. So what drives me then?
Rebbe Nachman taught: Start thinking about serving G-d without any consideration of reward in this world or the next. Start thinking about Divine service as doing what I was created to do, because it is the right and good thing.
Meaning, serve G-d purely for the sake of the service alone, and rejoice in the fact that you’ve managed to grab ahold of eternity while living the temporal life.
This is true joy in the mitzvah. Instead of keeping my eyes on some future prize…this moment, and this mitzvah, is all of the prize that I need.
My Creator,
I would love to serve You
just for the sake of serving You.
Please help me to feel genuine joy
in every mitzvah.
Not in expectation of a future reward…
but that the act alone should be all of the reward that I need.
(Based on Rebbe Nachman’s Wisdom #48)
