Audience of One
Why do we consider an audience when contemplating our purpose? Are we performing for a father or mother who believed we never lived up to our potential, peers who mocked us as children, a boss who denied us that promotion, or co-workers who couldn’t understand why we were hired in the first place? The Good News is that we only need to please an audience of One, not a fickle crowd of millions. The One who authored our role in His story is the only One qualified to judge our performance; pleasing Him is pretty simple, requiring only that we be who He uniquely created us to be. If we improvise for the viewing public, our performance will be harshly critiqued and soon forgotten. However, if we stay in character, we are promised a personal audience with the Scriptwriter at a cast party that never ends. I suspect you would prefer your life to end up as a rolling credit in an eternal salvation story rather than a headline in an old newspaper lining a birdcage.
Interestingly, while our postmodern culture encourages us to create our own purpose, we remain obsessed with what others think about it. We are intrigued by television shows that judge the talents of those who believe they were born to be the next American Idol, yet we cringe as their dreams are shattered by judges who deem them unfit. We urge others to create their own meaning, but then we turn around and place them on the world stage for third-party validation. Our problem is that we have set the bar for human meaning in the physical world when, in reality, it is found in the heavens. The search for worldly significance will always be short-lived because it is a moving cultural target. Thankfully, the heavenly bar is set at the same height for everyone, and those who find their meaning in Christ receive a Jesus ladder to help them over the top.
“Animals are content when their needs are satisfied; man insists, not only on being satisfied but also on being able to satisfy, on being a need not only on having needs. Personal needs come and go, but one anxiety remains: Am I needed? No man has not been moved by that anxiety.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel)
God's Screenplay 