Living for an Audience of One

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A friend of mine shared one of the most powerful poems I have read in a long time. It is an adaptation of Kent M. Keith's The Paradoxical Commandments, titled Do It Anyway.

 

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. 

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

 

These words remind us of a fundamental question: Why do we do what we do? 

 

Some people do certain things to stroke their ego, soothe a guilty conscience, earn the praise of men, or gain social acceptance. 

 

Others act not for public approval, applause, and acceptance, but from an internal conviction to live with integrity. 

 

The highest motive of all, however, is to please God. Only God's appraisal matters. A life lived according to His will is lived before one audience that trumps all others, even the honorable audience of personal integrity.

 

The idea of living before an Audience of One is found throughout Scripture. The Apostle Paul made it his highest aim to please God, writing, "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10).

 

Paul later instructed Christian bondservants to serve as though they were serving the Lord: "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, ... for you serve the Lord Christ" (Col. 3:23-24). 

 

Jesus Himself taught that our charitable deeds are not for human recognition, but for Him who sees in secret (Matt. 6:1-4).

 

Whether our motives are questioned, our efforts forgotten, or our work upended, we do what is right anyway. Why? Because our lives were never about living for the crowd, but for the Creator, to whom we owe all things (Rom. 14:7-8).

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Written by Craig Ressler