Behaving before the King

March 28, 2009

Deuteronomy 21-22 and Proverbs 25

One of the things about living a godly life is that is difficult is the idea that God is watching you. There is a name for people who think that someone is always watching them: paranoid.

Some of you might remember that song in the 80’s by Rockwell with the chorus: “I always feel like somebody’s watching me, and I have no privacy.” Actually, I believe that Michael Jackson sung the chorus.

That song came out in 1984, which turned out not to be the age of Big Brother after all. Perhaps that was the reason why that song was such a hit back then, because we all fear a time when someone is watching us, constantly.

For me, I can’t stand it. It’s like having your boss micromanage you. And this is probably why most people don’t become Christians. Does anyone want to be micromanaged 24/7?

I think that all of us probably act differently at home than we do at work. Some of us might act differently in private than we do in public. In all honesty, a lot of sin usually happens during this time.

That is the sad part about humans. We all act differently in front of people that we are trying to impress. It really is sad. The sad part is we start to wear different faces for each person of authority.

So how should we behave if the president were to come over. Would we honestly be on our best behavior, or would we act completely different? Could we just have freedom to be ourselves?

Perhaps I think we all know that we have lives that we have to hide from the public. Maybe this is why we in America buy expensive houses, because we just have to have some place of refuge where we shut out the rest of the world so nobody sees what it is we are doing. We can have our secret lives and not worry about intruders.

Yeah, it’s wonderful to live in a democracy instead of a dictatorship. We don’t have to worry about people watching us all the time, unless we really get out of line.

Proverbs talks about how we are to treat the king. We don’t just go up and sit at his table without permission. Instead, we wait for the king to call on us, rather than let us be embarrassed.

Of course, books have been written about how to act in front of kings or other important heads of state. You probably won’t see me taking my shoes off and putting my feet on my table during a Presidential Dinner.

Do you realize that if we all behaved as if God was in the room, how about…normally.