An Audience of One

Over the years, people who are familiar with my frequent spiritual conversations have urged me to write about them. They see the value of these conversations, not only for the fulfillment of the Great Commission, but also for the inclusion of the Christian voice in our culture and the preservation of religious liberties that are quickly vanishing in the West today. They would like to have more and better spiritual conversations themselves and to see the body of Christ worldwide engaging in similar interactions. So when one of these friends shared my recent post in which I discussed a significant conversation I had with my pastor, he was extremely disappointed that so few people paid any attention to it.

Frustrated, he noted, “I get 100 ‘likes’ when I post a funny meme, but just a few interactions when I share about important conversations that have the potential to impact people’s eternal destiny and completely transform lives! It’s so disappointing! Aren’t you discouraged,” he asked me.

The truth is that sometimes I do get discouraged, but I learned something invaluable when I was involved in Athletes in Action, the campus ministry through which I heard the gospel and committed my life to Christ at university. That critical, biblical principle which motivates me to carry on even when no one is paying attention and when no one is responding, is that we are to do everything for an audience of one.

Whether I’m playing sports, having conversations, writing articles, speaking at conferences, driving, thinking, praying, eating, or anything else, I am doing it all for an audience of one, and that one person is the Lord. His is the only opinion that matters. He is the one who determines whether or not I’ve lived my life in a manner worthy of the calling I have received. He is the one who disciplines, rebukes, honors, and lifts up. He is the one whose glory I seek.

Do I wish 100,000 people would read what I have to offer and apply it to their own lives? Yes! But I don’t expect the world to get excited about eternal things. I don’t even expect churchgoers to get excited about eternal things, because many churchgoers in America are just that—attendees of a personally-beneficial social club rather than soldiers in the army of the Lord who are deeply committed to self-sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. 

This is not a condemnation of everyone who doesn’t read every article I post; that would be ridiculous. We’re all busy, and there are people out there who write better material than I. Rather, let this be an encouragement to those of you who feel like you are unseen, unheard, or uncelebrated in your difficult drudge through the mud of life in service to the Lord. If Jesus himself was not celebrated by this world, if the masses walked away from his teaching and even deemed him worthy of death, why would we expect anything different?

Shortly before his crucifixion, as Jesus spent his final hours with his disciples in the upper room, he told them this: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).

We are not promised success or praise or acceptance in this life. More and more each day, it is the case that living a faithful Christian life actually guarantees rejection and scorn from our peers. But there is one person whose approval we must continue to seek. He is the Lord, who left perfect fellowship and glory with the Father in Heaven to come to earth as a man, and to suffer and die for our sins. He was crucified, dead, and buried. On the third day he rose again, and now he sits at the right hand of the Father, where he intercedes for us, keeping our inheritance secure for the day God calls us home.    

I will keep having conversations and writing about them because I do it for an audience of one. I will experience days of discouragement, but I continue to surround myself with friends who will remind me that I don’t do it for the world. I do it for the King.

I hope that whatever God has called you to do, you will persevere as well, keeping in mind that it doesn’t matter how many people see you or hear you or praise you. The Lord sees you. He celebrates you. And his opinion is the only one that truly matters.