For the One

I’m writing this one for my wife.

Over a year ago, I started writing again (after a hiatus of several years before that). I said, “Alright, I’m going to stick with it this time! Let’s get this thing rolling!

And then I wrote two posts and quit again.

Since then, my wife Katie has often said, “You should write a new post!” I always say, “Eh…I don’t know. I don’t have much to write about. And besides, I don’t think anyone will read it.” To which she replies, “I’ll read it.”

And as I’ve thought about it, that’s probably enough.

These days, we live in such a performative culture. We want everything we do to be noticed and appreciated by as many people as we can. We ask, “If people aren’t watching, then what’s the point of doing it? If I don’t get many likes on my Instagram post, should I just delete it? If my video doesn’t get many views, was it worth the time? If what I write doesn’t find many readers, should it have been written?”

In our digitally-connected age, we so often seek the attention of the crowd, no matter how anonymous they may be to us. It makes us feel good to get good numbers in our site analytics or to get a lot of comments.

But in all of this, perhaps we’ve lost something. Maybe we’ve forgotten the goodness of doing things, not to be noticed by the digital crowd, but to bring some pleasure to the people closest to us. Isn’t there value in doing things for a single person – especially when that person is the most meaningful individual to you?

As I’ve been rolling this idea around, I’ve also thought of a spiritual application. I’m reminded of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Mt. 6:1). Instead, Jesus talks about doing things only to be noticed by God, who “sees what is done in secret” (Mt. 6:4).

Jesus’ words confront our cultural obsession with performance. The hypocrites might have asked, “Is it worth giving to the needy if no one is paying attention? Is it worth praying if other people can’t hear you? Is it worth fasting if others don’t witness your piety?”

Or maybe we could turn these questions around into something like this: Is it worth living in love and obedience, even if the only person who will notice is God?

The answer to that last question has to be an emphatic “Yes.” We aren’t called to live righteously in order to impress the crowd. We’re called to live righteously to honor the One. In a world where we place so much focus on getting the attention of others, this is an important truth.

I’m not sure if many people who read this post. And I’m pretty okay with that, because I know my wife will. And I don’t know if many will see any of the good things we do as a followers of Jesus. But God sees, and that’s probably all we need.