Blissfully unaware

This week, I was given a reminder how at any moment, your activities could be chronicled, and held up for the world to see. I was thumbing through a list of reflections put up by Justin Ruddy, clicked on a picture blog done by Scotland Huber, the photographer at TGCNE 2012, and all of a sudden, there I was. Keller, Piper, Um, Carson. The band, which was awesome...and me. Worshiping. Minding my own business, blissfully unaware that I was about to have my picture taken and put up for the world to see.

I got me thinking, once again, that we never know when our lives will be put on display. We never know when our lives will suddenly be thrown under a microscope. People are always watching. What will they see? Will they see a life devoted to Christ? Will they see a life celebrating the finished work of Christ? Will they see someone whose life is calibrated by the cross, built on a foundation of rock, and lived for the glory of the one who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light? Will they see someone who is, to use a phrase from D.A. Carson, “gossiping the Gospel”? Will they see someone in love with the Gospel? Proclaiming it, celebrating it, telling it, and then living faithfully before God? Will they see someone who remembers at all time, that they are living as emissaries of a king, and people who are part of a cosmic battle between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of God.

Or will they see something else? Someone who says with his mouth, I love Christ, but then, shows no compassion? Someone who flies off the handle instead of showing patience and mercy and self control? Someone who says, love your wife as Christ loved the church, and then speaks disdainfully to his wife? Someone who says, raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but then prioritizes work and “ministry” over his children? Someone who says, I understand that Christian life involves cross bearing, but then grumbles about every slight? What will people see?

The world is watching. New England is watching. It’s watching me. And it’s watching you. What will they see on Facebook, on twitter? What will they see at work? What will they see at your kids Little League and Pop Warner games? And what will your kids see at home? Will they see a life lived in relationship to God, built on Christ, being remade by Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). This weekend, I was captured worshiping. But this week, people will see me at my best, and at my worst. What will they see? My prayer is that at my best and worst, my life will reflect the one into whose image I am being transformed. My prayer is that the same can be said of Christians throughout  New England.

 Photos by Scotland Huber