Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices.

Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.

1 Peter 2:11-12 (MSG)

We call it “people-watching”, and anyone who has spent time in malls, airports, sports stadiums, or bustling cities knows a thing or two about it. Our culture seems to be endlessly fascinated with other people’s appearance and other people’s business. We want to know makes people tick. We are naturally curious about human behavior, and the further people deviate from what we consider “normal”, the more fascinating people-watching becomes. 

The problem with people-watching is that we don’t simply observe; we draw conclusions. We judge. We see a snapshot of a person’s life, and we decide in a split second whether or not a person is successful or a failure, a hard-worker or lazy, intelligent or dumb, morally upright or immoral, perfectly put together or a bit of a mess. And if we do that to others, then they are obviously doing it to us, too. Even the tiniest snapshot of our lives can lead non-believers to jump to entirely the wrong conclusions, not only about us, but about Jesus and Christianity, too. We are here to be light to others and to point them to Jesus. And even though we are called to deviate from “normal”, to live lives that look different from the “natives” (Romans 12:2), we all desperately want to be seen as normal.

What do people observe when they watch you? If they saw a split second of your life, would it point them to Jesus? Would they see Him in your conversations, your actions, and your relationships? Living an exemplary life is not easy, but you don’t have to do it alone. God is always with you (Joshua 1:9). He is watching for those whose hearts are in tune with His (2 Chronicles 16:9). And He wants you to press into Him, rather than pressing into what the world calls “normal”. He will help you represent Him well and live the exemplary life among natives that He has called you to live. You are loved!