Day 2824 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

John 5:44 NIV

"Putting on a show that will never sell out."

That opening line from Brooke Robertson's song Just Be You started spinning through my mind well before the break of dawn. Last night was one of those nights where you just can't sleep. No part of me wanted to be conscious at 5 am, but apparently my mind had other plans. So, as I lay in bed, I figured I'd just listen to whatever thoughts may come around. And that line from her song was the one thought that seemed to hang around the longest, and so I figured it must be something I needed to share.

So many of us, probably most in fact, live our lives like some kind of magnificent theatrical production put on for the sole pursuit of pleasing the crowd. We learn the lines, rehearse the choreography, step onto the stage, and approach the microphone. We think that if we can coax enough people into filling the auditorium then our lives will have mattered. We live under this assumption that our life’s worth is found in the amount of praise we received from the masses around us. And so we set off on the expedition to become everything to everyone.

But sadly, we eventually lose ourselves in the process of learning what everyone else is expecting to experience. We learn to give more consideration to what will draw in an appreciative attendance than to simply living the lives that God has written for us to live. We forget that God made us who He wanted us to be long before we started giving it away in exchange for social praise and worldly acceptance. We lose sight of who He still calls us to be as we become more afraid of letting down those gathered to watch us perform.

Somewhere along the line we got it in our minds that these lives are our chance. They're our chance to matter. They're our chance to stand in the spotlight. They're our chance to be seen, to be heard, to be remembered, to be important. We look around at this hollyweird world and see much of humanity undertaking this same effort to be recognized and rewarded with social adoration and acclaim. And it all just feeds into this mentality which has us convinced that life on this earth is meaningful only if others will attest to our attempt to be attractive.

But in truth, we're all fighting for something we've already been given. We're striving toward a goal we've already achieved. We're wearing ourselves out, and in many ways losing our own identity, in order to receive a reward that was handed to us long before our lives even began. We've been talking a lot about the cross and all that Christ's life means, and in short, He means we matter. His life tells us that we're worth dying for. His sacrifice on that cross tells us that God accepts us, sees us, loves us.

So what are still trying to gain?

Why do we paint ourselves up to make ourselves more appealing to a people more than happy to ignore us? Why do we go through all of this conforming in order to fit in with a place in which we won’t be staying? Why is worldly admiration held in such high regard when the Creator of life itself says we're already enough? Why do we need those around us to clap their hands and cheer us on when the King gave His life to see us in Heaven? Why do we feel this need to be accepted when God accepted us at our lowest?

That's honestly been one of the biggest messages that I've been trying to convey over the last week or two. All of these efforts we undertake to appease a fallen world are worthless because they require us to let go of all that this fallen world doesn't like or appreciate. Pleasing mankind requires us to say and do and be all that mankind prefers. And when we look at what mankind prefers, we see everything that God hates. So, in order to become friends with the world, we really do find enmity with God.

But still we do it. We play the game. We put on the show. We live to cater to the lamentable preferences of a crowd that truly couldn't care less whether we're here or not. We do whatever it takes to make people like us, completely unaware that society has far too many requirements and expectations for us to ever possibly check all the boxes. We cannot be everything that everyone wants us to be. And so, at some point we have to stop and choose who we want to be, what kind of life we want to live, and what we hope to actually achieve with the short time we're here on this earth.

The inescapable fact is that we can’t rightly call ourselves Christians if we care at all about the opinions and preferences of those around us. If we give more weight to the glory which comes from man than that which comes from God then we will find ourselves doing the very things that He told us not to do. If we seek audience with those around us then we will fall out of favor with the One above us. If we live to make ourselves liked by the world, then we will never truly be like Jesus.

We can’t say that we believe the Gospel is all that matters if we’re living our lives still trying to gain more through social praise and adoration.

Contrary to the clearly common conclusion, this world isn't our stage. This isn’t our spotlight. This ain’t our show. This time we've been given was given to us for the express purpose of glorifying God and helping everyone see what's been done for us. It's not to share messages that placate the pitiful passions of a fallen humanity. It's not finding some way to gather a glorious gallery of eager spectators that hang on our every word. It's not to spend our time trying to find a million different ways to be a million different things to a million different people all at the same time.

No, this time we have is ours to give away. It's our chance to be seen and heard in Heaven, regardless of whether or not anyone around us listens. It's our chance to matter in the scope of eternity through the sharing of a message that began being written long before God placed Adam and Eve in that garden and will continue onward until the ending of time itself when Christ returns and closes the curtains. It's our chance to discover what matters most in life, and what matters most in life is only what we're willing to die for.

That's what I pray everyone understands about this faith of ours and what it can mean to our lives and our time in this place. Christ died to show us just how much we matter to Him. To the best of my knowledge, nobody else has died for me specifically. So, if He chose to give His life so that I could have mine back, then I surmise it's only fair that I give it right back to Him in the form of an unrelenting willingness to go where He says go to do what He needs me to do without ever stopping to wonder what anyone else may think or prefer.

When all the lights are turned off and the speakers unplugged and the crowd has funneled their way out the doors back into their lives, the show we put on will eventually be forgotten. Our grandiose performance with slip into oblivion. Our words will fade into the mist of yesterday and our names will likely be relegated to the nothingness of history. But not if we live for Christ. Not if we speak of His name and share His story and give our every moment over to the chance of being fishers of men rather than pleasers of them.

Friends, one day this life will end and I can't bear the thought of standing before my Maker and having to tell Him that I lost myself along the way. I don't want to have to come up with an endless list of excuses as to why I tried so hard to please people and gave no thought to trying to please Him. I don't want to be left with the eternal realization that I lost my life for nothing. I want to be left with the hope that I gave my life away because my Savior did the same for me.

Any show we could ever put on in this place will indeed never sell out. But if we're not careful, we could very easily find that we sold out in the effort to draw in a crowd. The simple fact is that this world never cared whether we're here or not. And when we're gone, millions will have never known we ever existed.

But the One who made us, the One who saved us, the One who undeservingly forgave us for putting the world ahead of Him, He knew we existed before we existed. He loved us when we were unlovable. He wanted us when we didn't want Him in our way. He's always been our biggest fan, and it's time that we understand that our audience has always been an audience of One.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold