Living For An Audience Of One

One of the most frustrating aspects of human nature is how we seek approval and recognition from other people. We feel as if our good intentions and actions are futile if the people around us don’t notice them.

I often find myself doing a good deed just to get attention or for people to think I’m a good person. There I am trying to do good for God, and I end up doing it for myself. How weak am I?!? I fall into the sin of pride even in my so-called “good deeds.”

So how can I overcome this temptation?

It starts with ridding my mind of all distractions and desires to please my “audience.” Regardless of what the culture tells me, I remind myself I need to live for an audience of One. Whether in secret or public, I should do everything for the Lord.

But how can I do that when my life seems to be full of insignificant moments and trivial matters?

Making The Ordinary Something Extraordinary

One of the keys to living for our audience of One is to realize our actions, no matter how big or small, really do matter.

God calls each of us to know, love and serve Him where we are in the present moment. While we may never see the effect of our actions in this life, we must realize they have an eternal effect. For each action we make either draws us closer or pushes us further away from perfect union with our Lord.

While I constantly remind myself of the importance of all my thoughts and actions, I still struggle with living out that truth every single day.

I often get so distracted by the “to do” list in my life that I completely ignore the ways in which God extends His love to me each moment. God is so humble that He reveals Himself to us in little ways that the world would brush off as coincidence.

However, coincidence is simply the language of Heaven.

We must keep in mind that “every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). If we truly reflect on that, we can see that literally every single good thing comes from God! How beautiful and transformative that verse can be if we truly contemplate it and learn to be open to God’s countless invitations to love throughout the day.

“Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find Him.” –St. Josemaria Escriva

Grace Abounds

The tough question is how can we open our eyes to find God in the little moments in life?

In the same way every other truth is revealed to us… through prayer and the grace God freely gives to us.

Life is a constant battle, and we must keep turning to the Lord for strength along the way.

Time spent in prayer is never wasted, and it is the only way we can truly learn to approach God and others in the correct manner. God desperately wants to pour out His graces on us, but we have to let Him.

When we spend more time with Christ, we will begin seeing Him more clearly. Through the joys and sorrows of each day, we will start recognizing His Presence all around us.

I’m not saying you will always feel on fire for Him, because you won’t. However, you can certainly find Him in the “ordinary” things of everyday life.

Nonetheless, we must always keep in mind that it is only through cooperating with God’s grace that we are able to do anything good. For that reason, we never have the right to get a big head and think the good things we do are through our own merit.

Embracing Our Littleness

St. Therese, perhaps the greatest saint of recent times, often prayed and asked our Lord to let her borrow His love so that she might love Him and others better.

May we too pray that same prayer with St. Therese as we realize our nothingness before God. He deserves all of our love. Although we will never be able to love Him as we should, we must keep striving to love more and more.

So as I struggle to live solely for Jesus each and every moment of the day, I keep praying for the grace to find the beauty in every passing moment. No matter how simple, ordinary, or insignificant you think your life is right now, know that each action can be good and pleasing to God if approached with the correct disposition.

I pray we can all learn to make the ordinary extraordinary by cooperating with the infinite graces our Lord wants to give us!