What would your life look like if no one ever saw it? Would you still want it?
I saw a video today that made me take a real look at myself. A guy asked a question that made me think about why I do some of the things I do.
"Would you still want your dream life if nobody could see it? Nobody knows what car you drive, what house you live in, how much money you make, or where you travel. Nobody is there to see it, talk about it, or tell you how well you are doing.
Would you still want that life?"
When I first discovered my passion for writing, I did it because I loved it. I could write for hours and never think about whether anyone would read what I was writing. Sometimes those hours turned into days, weeks, and even months. I was not looking for a crowd. I was writing because there was something in me that just loved to write.
Then people started noticing.
People started telling me they liked what I wrote, that my words helped them or made them think. And honestly, I liked it. It feels good when someone tells you that your words mattered to them, and I am grateful for that encouragement.
But somewhere along the way, I had to ask myself a harder question.
Would I still love writing as much if nobody ever read another word I wrote?
I did not have an immediate answer, and that bothered me because I knew something had changed. I still loved writing, but now I also knew what it felt like to have people notice it, and I had to be real enough with myself to ask whether I had started depending on that recognition.
There is a difference between being thankful when people notice what you do and needing people to recognize it before you believe it has value.
That distinction has made me look at my own motives differently.
Why am I writing? Is it truly because I love it? Is it because I want to help people? Is it because I enjoy seeing people respond to my words? Or am I taking something God gave me and slowly making it more about me than Him?
That last question is the one I cannot ignore.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Whatever you do. That means the things we do when nobody is watching matter too. The work nobody applauds matters. The gift nobody recognizes matters. If God gave us those gifts in the first place, then the attention we receive from other people cannot be the thing that gives them their value.
That has become important to me because I do not want writing to become about building my name. I want it to point people toward God.
I do enjoy seeing people respond to something I write, and I am thankful when something I have written helps someone. But I have to remember that the ability to write and the opportunity to use it did not come from me. God gave me both, so God deserves the glory.
I think that is where we can get ourselves into trouble. We can start with something God gave us, enjoy it, become good at it, receive recognition for it, and then slowly start measuring its value by how much attention it gets.
We may not even realize it is happening.
We start checking who liked it, who shared it, and comparing our progress to someone else's. Before long, something that once brought us joy has become another way for us to measure ourselves.
I know that temptation because I am human too.
But God has been reminding me that I was never called to make people admire me. I was called to be faithful with what He gave me.
David did not need a crowd to tell him that God had given him the courage to face Goliath. Jesus also lived in a way that continually pointed people back to the Father.
That is the example I want to follow.
If people recognize something God has given me, I can be grateful without making their recognition my reason for doing it. If nobody notices, I still want to be faithful because the value of what God gives us does not depend on whether other people see it.
That is a hard thing to remember in a world where almost everything can be posted, measured, liked, shared, and compared.
So maybe the question is not really whether we would want our dream life if nobody saw it. Maybe the deeper question is who are we living it for?
If the answer is people, then what happens when people stop watching?
But if the answer is God, then the audience can change without changing our purpose.
For me, that is what I am still learning. I want to write because God gave me the ability to write. I want my words to help people, encourage them, make them think, and most of all point them toward Him. If people recognize the work, I will be grateful. If they do not, I still want to do what God has given me to do.
I do not want to spend my life building something that only feels valuable when somebody else is watching. I want to know that I would still do it if nobody ever saw it.
God was the reason I started, and He needs to remain the reason I continue.
Everything else has to stay in its proper place.
Pray with me!
Father God,
Help me be honest about my motives and show me when I am looking for approval from people instead of looking to You. Teach me to appreciate encouragement without becoming dependent on it, and help me remember that the gifts You have given me are not made more valuable by attention or less valuable when nobody notices them.
Give me the discipline to keep doing what You have called me to do even when there is no recognition and no one watching. Keep my heart focused on You so that what I do points people back to You instead of making it about me. Remind me that every gift comes from You and that everything I have is ultimately Yours. I want my life, my work, my words, and everything You have placed in my hands to bring You glory. You alone deserve the glory.
