What drives your life? “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go,” says the message on a car bumper sticker. Or you may hear someone saying, “I am tired of my life or tired of living.” But debt is really the shaft drive of your existence? Or being tired the driving force of your life? What drives your life? What are the ingredients of a great driving force of life? I’m not a philosopher, but when you live long enough and analyze the mistakes of people your form some opinions. You see some live into 90s or even 100s who are bright and cheerful, and others, a third of their age, who are bitter and cynical and begin to wither. You can sense that there is no driving force in their lives and they die without even living the most and best of life. They are living dead who exist but are living for nothing. Theirs is despair which Solomon talked about when he said, “I declare that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive” (Ecclesiastes 4:2). The ingredients of a great driving force are: 1. Someone you love. 2. Something to do. 3. Something to hope for. Based on my experience, loving someone helps meet one of our deepest emotional needs. Something to do gives us a sense of purpose and meaning, a reason for existing, a cause which goes beyond spending eight or ten hours a day at a job. It meets our basic need in our lives. And something to hope for gives us a connection with tomorrow which helps us over the rough spots of today. So, the challenge with these great driving forces of life is “How do we get there from where we are?” A starting point is to back off from the turmoil of your routine. Sometimes we are so close to things that we need some space to help see things in perspective. Much of what consumes our time and energy will count for little, if anything, tomorrow. Don’t be like a mouse trapped in a cage who treads a cycle which consumes his energy but takes him nowhere. Anything driving force that we need to consider is to spent time alone with God. Enjoy some moment in the presence of God. Remember, the ship drift when there is no anchor. The traveler without a compass or map of GPS wanders aimlessly, and the pilot who can’t find the airport quickly finds himself in distress. That is where the link with a gracious and loving God makes a powerful difference. Knowing that you are a child of God and having a deep sense of his love, grace, mercy and compassion gives you an identity and a purpose. David spoke of the hope of tomorrow when he confessed, “…I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” Then he gave some counsel for today. “Wait for the LORD, be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27: 13, 14). Examine your heart, your mind, and your life and ask, “What drives my heart, my mind and my life?”