The Audience

I watched "America's Got Talent" last night on TV.

There were dancers, comedians, some acts that I wasn't quite sure what was the talent, orchestras, choral groups, a guy named "Special Head" who levitated and some downright, knock your socks off singers who were simply amazing. If the act was good enough... they were heading to Las Vegas for the next round.

Whether each contestant received standing ovations or loud boos from a packed house. Whether they drew the judges' disapproval or received an emphatic thumbs up, they all had one thing in common...

Thy were all out on stage...

My iWitness...

 Have you ever been on stage?

It's a scary place to be.
It's just you.
Nobody else.
No one else to blame.
No one else to share the credit.
Exposed...

And the crowd waits as you get ready to perform.
And you wonder...
Sometimes you wonder so much as to whether the audience will like you or not, you get "stage fright" and you cannot perform and the demanding audience pounces on your weakness with their disapproving boos ultimately leaving you lower than a snakes' belly slithering off the stage.
Sometimes you meet their approval and the applause and the kudos and the praise is deafening and you bound off stage higher than a kite.

The audience can be so fickle...
So unpredictable...
So frightening...

Here's a reality check!

The stage of "today" that we walk out on, risking our very being in performing the duties of the day, only has an audience of "one."

There is only one person in the audience.

That one person is God alone.

Here's the deal.
This audience of One loves you, cheers for you, gives you standing ovations for the littlest acts of kindness you perform in loving service for others.
This audience of One is not fickle, unpredictable or frightening.
This audience of One has a most fascinating facet to His judgeship.
This audience of One is mobile.

This audience of One does not remain in the audience with arms crossed, face stern with voice booming, "You better be perfect! Your act better knock my socks off! You better do something incredible! Your "wow" factor needs to be "over the top."

No, the audience of One has the ability and the mobility to come up out of the seats and visit us on stage to turn us into better performers, have a more loving stage presence and indeed do things and be things we never thought possible.

The audience of One has been on stage before. He has been perfect. He has watched the fickle crowd in matter of five days go from singing his praises with "Hosanna" to the loud shouts of "Crucify him."

The audience of One wants only one thing from us today...
For us to hear His voice and His voice alone as He cheers us on, lifts us up, performs with us and inside of us, encourages us, places His hands on our cheeks and looks us in the eyes and declares with great tenderness, "You are wonderful! You are incredible! You are amazing! I am so honored to be on this stage with you! I love you and I promise never to leave you!

 Here's the question of the day:

Will you allow the theatre in which you perform on stage today to be filled with just the audience of One or will you allow the fickle crowd to sneak in and fill the auditorium? To which audience will you be performing for today?

If you will allow the Audience of One to be just that... an audience of One, I have good news for you...

You're going on to the next round!!

And that's my iWitness...
Laugh often and fear not!
David!