To Be Seen

Day 13

To Be Seen

 

‘Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.’

Matthew 6:1

 

Human souls have onion-layered depths that run so deep that sometimes we ourselves are not aware of what lies beneath.

Underneath our behaviours, choices and actions lie these layers of conscious and subconscious motivation, unseen but not benign; motivations often driven by unmet needs from our past, like the need to feel significant, loved, valued, respected or seen.

When we are filled and fuelled by the Holy Spirit of God within us, these onion-layers have less control, less impact. But so often, these layers of our soul will be our subconscious default: like when we first get out of bed in the morning, when we’re tired, when we’re stressed, when we’re under pressure, or when we’re simply running in our own strength and living from our own identity rather that Christ’s new life within us.

The layers of our human soul will look different for each of us, but we all have them. They can be our undoing, like they were in the beginning…

“Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’

The woman said to the snake, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”’

‘You will not certainly die,’ the snake said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.’ Genesis 3:1-6

The serpent enticed Eve with a desire to be significant and powerful- “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God”, and a desire to be the one in the room with the answers- ‘knowing good and evil.’ He drew her in with physical hungers and aesthetic pleasure ‘the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye’ and finally the lure that the fruit would make her more… wiser, smarter, stronger- ‘and also desirable for gaining wisdom.’

Pulled by these enticements the first humans reached past God’s loving command for more. And discovered in the process they had become less. And how the fear that we are less, that we are not enough, sets us on our treadmills today, how it drives us to search out stages to be seen on, social media platforms to be visible on, careers to be powerful within and groups to be heard in.

After the fall in that garden long ago, it has now become normal human behaviour to search out and strain for significance, recognition and power and the applauding gaze of others. And these drivers within the layers of our souls have become so much a part of us that there are days we do not even know they’re there.

But God knows.

Because God sees us. All of us. All the layers of all our souls and all the unmet needs that drive our motivations.

And so, God incarnate sitting on this breezy mountainside, alerts all His hearers then and now to this reality of the human soul. The reality that sometimes we will even use the practices of our faith to satiate the unmet needs of our souls. The reality that our souls have layers that motivate our actions.

‘Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.’

Matthew 6:1

Just as so much of Jesus’ teaching on this hillside so far has been highlighting the root cause of human issues, here He calls us to dig deep into the layers of our souls and understand the forces within that motivate us. Do we care about looking good and looking righteous? Or truly being good and being righteous?

Jesus will proceed to talk about giving, prayer and fasting, the three key activities that Jews viewed as obligations of their faith and indicators of righteousness.

His message is clear: don’t let the practices of your faith be motivated by the stroking of your ego.

Do everything for God and God alone.

In the coming verses Jesus will challenge all His hearers to practice prayer, giving and fasting ‘in secret’ so that  “Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” We do what we do for God alone.

Paul reiterated this in his letter to the Colossians when he wrote,

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Colossians 3.23-24

You are serving the Lord Christ. No one else.

We, all of us have an audience of one. And the beautiful thing is: We have an audience. God sees us. All of us. The deep places where bruises from our past linger and form our achilles-heel emotional motivators. We are deeply seen by eyes of grace. God’s gaze doesn’t look away, doesn’t point the finger, but He does shine light into our hearts and call us to motivate ourselves by nothing but our love for Him: Our audience of one.

And the beautiful thing is that when we give the broken motivations of our hearts and then the works of our hands to Jesus, and serve God whole heartedly, He meets all our unmet needs and heals the broken layers of our souls.

Human souls have onion-layered depths that run so deep that sometimes we ourselves are not aware of what lies beneath.

But God sees us. And His healing redemptive love runs deeper still.

 

 

 

Explore Further

Journaling The Journey 

How do you respond when you feel unseen?

What is your relationship to the approval or disapproval of those around you?

Can you name times where being seen by others was motivating your behaviour?

 

Todays Hillside Photograph was taken from the North Devon Coastline, Devon, UK