Tuesday | June 04, 2024
Mark 12:14
Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion.
My Audience of One
Opinions once mattered greatly to me. I was a people pleaser, anticipating other’s needs from an early age. But, as most people pleasers find, you can’t appease everyone—especially if, like the Pharisees in today’s Gospel, their desires are ill-intended. Jesus saw straight through it all. He spoke truth to hardened hearts, telling them to give to Caesar what was Caesar’s but, more importantly, to give to God what was God’s. Yes, some walked away. And that was okay. With Jesus’ focus on the Father, he would never please everyone. And neither should I.
In emulating Jesus, I learned to see beyond others’ motives and make the Father’s opinion my true focus. There was such freedom in discovering that I needn’t play before all the others when God was my audience.
Thank you, Lord, for showing me that you are my audience of one—and the one opinion that truly matters.
- Kathleen Swartz McQuaig
2 Peter 3:12-15a, 17-18 • Psalm 90:2-4, 10, 14, 16 • Mark 12:13-17
