Have you ever had the joy (!) of getting some new computer part, only to find that it doesn’t work because it ‘doesn’t have the right driver’? It has taken me a long time to understand the jargon, but apparently a ‘driver’ in this sense is a program that controls a device. Every device, whether it be a printer, disk drive, or keyboard, must have a driver program. Many drivers, such as the keyboard driver, come with the operating system. For other devices, you may need to load a new driver when you connect the device to your computer and if you don’t… you don’t get very far! It’s maddening to have a shiny new printer that just sits there looking at you (without printing anything) because it can’t communicate with your computer because of driver problems.

On Sunday, Garry preached (amongst other things) about what ‘drives’ us or motivates us as people. With coloured ovals that resembled the Venn diagrams I loathed at school (more maths, you see…!), he talked about 3 things that drive us to do the things we do:
1) what we want to do
2) what we have to do
3) what we ought to do

Now, if all those three drivers line up, we are happy and enjoy what we’re doing. But if what we have to do isn’t the same as what we want to do, there is conflict. And if what we want to do or what we have to do are not the same as what we ought to do, we’ve got as many problems as the printer that sits there inert.

So, if we’re feeling stalled, maybe it’s because the things that are driving us aren’t talking to each other. We have to bring those three motivating forces into alignment so that we can live whole, integrated lives.

Paul talked about this conflict in Romans 7. “What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise,” he writes. “I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.” (The Message)

You can feel his frustration and despair at the end of Romans 7: “Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?” But thankfully, he doesn’t end there. He goes on to say, “The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”

God’s influence and help in our lives make all the difference, and, as Garry pointed out, there is no conflict within the Godhead. What God wants to do is exactly the same as what He has to do and what He ought to do. The unity of God gives us hope when we are wrestling with driver issues.