He was approved as pleasing to God. Hebrews 11:5

            I was an only child.  I lived in a very small town where the business district consisted of a post office, grocery store, tavern, and gas station.  There weren't many other children to play with and I spent a good deal of time making my own entertainment.  I loved sports and created a variety of ways to play baseball, basketball, and football with a roster of one.  A coal shed and a tennis ball, a carefully chosen stick and rocks, an oatmeal box basketball hoop, or an out-of-round rubber ball became the instruments for fashioning imaginary games complete with teams and scores.  But I wasn't the only one on site for the contest, at least, not in my mind.  There was an audience.  I imagined certain people watching my exploits and applauding my athletic skill.  Maybe it was one of my favorite professional players or just someone in my personal world that I wanted to impress, but in my mind they were there to see the plays I made.  I didn't disappoint them.  I pulled off many a last second touchdown catch, long shot, and home run to win championship games.  Even in an imaginary world it felt good.

            I've never gotten over that inner hunger for approval and applause.  Words of praise and affirmation mean just as much now as ever.  Of course, no longer is the experience imaginary.  I don't control the outcome.  I don't hand-pick the audience.  But the need to please is just as real.

            We never escape this compulsion to perform and please.  It is irrevocably entrenched in the very nature of or our humanity.  Some carry a heavy burden as they continue to live to gain approval from an un-pleasable authority figure from their past.  Others have followed the opposite path, rebelling aggressively against the unreachable standards of that demanding person from their formative years.  In either case, this performance factor negatively impacts the present character of their lives.

            Even if we have not been marked in this way, we still need to find a balance in this fundamental quest for affirmation.  How do we make this work for us instead of leading us down self-serving and self-destructive avenues?

            We must learn to live for an audience of one.  Yes, we seek approval.  Yes, we desire affirmation.  But the person we want to please most becomes God, himself.

            When our mind is consistently focused on pleasing God, the entire dynamic of our life is transformed.  We are set free from the impossible task and burdensome work of gaining the approval of people.  For when God is our singular audience, we no longer feel compelled to meet the arbitrary standards of others.  We don't have to receive their affirmation to feel good about ourselves.  Our emotional well-being is not dependent on what others think of us. 

But even more than this, we are released from performance as the basis of acceptance.  When we embrace God's grace and forgiveness he receives us as we are.  He takes us to himself apart from any merit of our own.  And our relationship with him going forward does not depend on a level of performance to which we must measure up.  Instead, we now seek to please him because of gratitude for what he has done in our lives.   We want his approval and affirmation out of love for him and because of his love for us.  As we love and seek him with a pure heart he lavishes his goodness upon us in spite of our faults and failures.  In this unique relationship of grace, He drenches our souls with the approval and acceptance for which we long.

So live for an audience of One.  His applause will resound for eternity.