Stuck at home, with an audience of One

I'm sitting at home now because my ankle is in a huge cast.  Too many years of basketball and sprained ankles have finally done the job!  I had put off the surgery for months, partly hoping that my ankle would get better by itself, but primarily because of prevailing work and NS commitments.  After the operation, the doctor told me my ankle ligaments looked like coconut shaving!  It seems I shouldn't have been able to walk properly, but in fact I've even continued to run occasionally.  That probably made the ankle worse, though I didn't realize it then.

You'd think being at home is a nice break.  But being stuck at home is not a nice feeling at all.  I can't move around, can't help my family with chores and homework (which completely understandably makes them grumpy) and the cast is hot and stuffy.  I still work from home, but again, colleagues naturally expect me to be back in the office and are, again, understandably grumpy with having to deal with me remotely.  So overall, I really wish I was back in shape.  It's no fun being out of action in the first place, and to have almost everyone grumpy at you for being out of action makes things worse.

Anyway, enough whining.  Absolutely nobody likes a whiner, and rightly so, and it's entirely possible that my own grumpiness at my helplessness is making me overly sensitive (I hope).  I guess the point I'm clumsily trying to make, while probably coming off as a complainer, is that people will have understandably short memories of the good we did while we were more useful to them.  So it's ever more important that you and I remember that we have an audience of only One, and One who always remembers (for good or bad!).  Thank you brother AP for reminding me of this recently.

I'm not saying that what people think of us is not important.  It is.  Matthew 5:14-16 says:

"You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."


So it's not merely about whether people think you are a capable guy at work, a faithful church leader, or even a good husband and father.  Those are important.  But the real issue is whether, in our work and ministry and family, what we do points the people around us to Jesus, and His work in us.  No good work is to my credit.  It's all Him and His surpassing power at work in me.

I like the lyrics of this song called "Live Like That", which says:

Sometimes I think, what will people say of me
When I'm only just a memory
When I'm home where my soul belongs

Was I love, when no one else would show up
Was I Jesus to the least of those
Was my worship more than just a song

Am I proof, that You are who You say You are
That grace can really change a heart
Do I live like Your love is true

People pass, and even though they don't know my name
Is there evidence that I've been changed
When they see me, do they see You?

I want to live like that
And give it all I have
So that everything I say and do, points to You

If love is who I am
Then this is where I stand
Recklessly abandoned, never holding back
I want to live like that!

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