Jeff Johnston

You have to be able to laugh at human nature sometimes. And typically, what I find myself laughing at most, is catching someone else doing something I would never want to be caught doing.  You know what I’m talking about, because if you’re like me, you probably seen some pretty weird things out there in the realm of humanity… for example:

• Some rustic looking guy picking his nose while driving down the road, oblivious that you’ve just witnessed his own personal mining expedition.
• That sweet old lady who just knocked some trinket down off the shelf by accident, and as it shattered into pieces, she looks the other way as if it never happened.
• The punk aggressive driver that whisks by you in a nanosecond, only to be centered out and caught red handed (can I say “red footed”?) by the police officer a few minutes down the road.

You know that feeling of seeing people in the middle of moments like these – We laugh at them… We are disgusted by them… Then we are glad we are NOT them.

But somewhere in the dark recesses of our consciousness, we are reminded that could have been us.  I’ve picked before. I’ve sped before. I’ve done things by accident and prayed that no one saw what just happened.

This got me to thinking, and I realized that this actually doesn’t ever HAVE to be us.  We have control over this.  We don’t have control over being caught – but we have control over doing things we wouldn’t ever want to be caught doing… and I’m talking about matters much more important that picking and bumping! Working harder when the boss gets on the scene. Raising our hands in worship when the pastor looks our way. Hitting the brakes or putting on the seatbelt when we notice that cop car.

Shouldn’t we be doing the right thing outside of the motivation of getting caught?

Galatians 4:18 tells us – “It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so ALWAYS, not just when I am with you.”

Paul is telling the Galatians that it is totally OK to be zealous about the things of God – but don’t just do it for show. Don’t just do it when he is around.  Do it ALWAYS.

It seems like even back then, God’s people wrestled with doing things differently in front of important people that they would never do alone. This may have impressed other men, but God wasn’t impressed at all.

And so, here we are today… monkeying around in this same paradigm. Not praying at home like we pray at small group. Not worshipping in our closets and cars like we do at church. Not treating our spouse with the same love & respect privately that we do publically. Not living private lives that match up with our public presentation.

It begs us to ask ourselves the question, “If my public and private lives were to meet for coffee, would they even recognize each other?”

The answer can be yes, if we are living a life of ALWAYS.