One
winter night composer Johann Sebastian Bach was scheduled to debut a new
composition. He arrived at the church expecting it to be full. Instead, he
learned that no one had come. Without missing a beat, Bach told his musicians
that they would still perform as planned. They took their places, Bach raised
his baton, and soon the empty church was filled with magnificent music.
This
story made me do some soul-searching. Would I write if God were my only
audience? How would my writing be different?
New
writers are often advised to visualize one person they are writing to as a way
of staying focused. I do this when I write devotionals; I try to keep readers
in mind because I want to say something they will want to read and that will
help them on their spiritual journey.
I doubt
that the “devotional writer” David, whose psalms we turn to for comfort and
encouragement, had “readers” in mind. The only audience he had in mind was God.
Whether our “deeds,” mentioned in Matthew 6, are works of art or acts of service, we should keep in mind that they’re really between us and God. Whether or not anyone else sees does not matter. He is our audience.
