I have been reminded about reward’s manifestations. It is easy to assume rewards can be easily defined. Automatic and discretionary, tangible and intangible often define the boundaries. In the reflection of seeing rewards, years later and in forms I never imagined, my view of rewards has changed.
I have often viewed rewards through the lens of motivation. As a manager, if I offer this reward, I will incentivize the employee to do a specific action to achieve a specific result. If the action fails to deliver, I did not worry, I simply did not reward the individual. As an employee, especially in my early days, I saw rewards as a marker of winning. I wanted to win every competition, task, and challenge.
The dominating idea of using rewards to motivate and control has been shattered by the growing awareness that my heart does not respond to this tool. If there is a single value within me that I desperately hold onto, it is the ability to use the freedom Divinity gifted each to decide. Even as I try to fit in and be accepted, I find myself charting a personal course based on the values, purpose, and mission within. While I can see rewards temporarily shaping individual action, in the long term, sustained action needs a believable and embraced vision.
The rewards which emerged to refine my understanding of the meaning of the word is found in the lives of individuals. The reward which comes when one became, if only for a moment or two, Divinity’s voice and touch which influenced the course of another’s life is best understood years later in their story and testimony. Even when one did not know what do to, letting Divinity whispers escape can be the difference between staying lost and turning to the light.
As I reread the psalmist’s words, “I’ll dress his enemies in dirty rags, but I’ll make his crown sparkle with splendor,” (Psalm 132.18) I see lives destroyed by choices in the darkness and lives restored and thriving in the sparkling light of hope and opportunity.
