The Eyes of the Lord

            Sometimes parents feel like they have two different sets of kids: the kids they know at home, and the kids who make an impression on others. Many times as our kids were growing up and going through their teen years we would receive compliments about them and would ask something like, “Are you sure we’re talking about the same person?” I’m sure Joanne and I were the same way when we were young. We would behave a little differently around others because we knew (felt like) we were being watched. We wanted to make a good impression.

Have you ever changed your behavior when you thought someone was watching you? I read about two recent studies that suggest that people begin to act more honestly when they felt like they were being watched. A 2006 study at a university faculty lounge offered coffee and tea to professors that for years had used an unsupervised honor system. The rules were clear: serve yourself and then put the money you owed into a box. For ten weeks, though, the experimenters put a hard-to-miss poster near the box. One version of the poster featured pretty flowers; the other version had a pair of eyes glaring out at the viewer. The image alternated between flowers and eyes each week. People paid almost three times more on "eyes" weeks than on "flowers" weeks.

In an April 29, 2013 article in The Atlantic (“Posters of Angry Eyes Actually Scare off Bike Thieves”), a 2012 study was reported to have found the same results—only this time watching eyes changed the behavior of potential bicycle thieves. Researchers put signs with a large pair of menacing eyes and the message "Cycle thieves: we are watching you" by the bike racks at Newcastle University in England. They then monitored bike thefts for two years and found a 62 percent drop in thefts at locations with the signs. But there was an interesting twist to this experiment. While theft rates went down 62 percent in the "we are watching you" racks, in other places in the university it shot up by 65 percent—an almost perfect offset. In other words, the thieves kept stealing bikes; they just went down the street to get away from those eyeballs of judgment and accountability.

            Even just the idea of being watched has an impact on behavior. Most of us would probably admit we feel freer to do things – things we wouldn’t want others to know about – when we are alone and unobserved. The problem with this thinking is that, in truth, we are always being observed. There is nothing hidden from the Lord. He sees and knows both our outward actions and our inner thoughts and motivations. Our hearts can keep no secrets from the Lord. But I don’t really think God has a desire to be some cosmic cop or some benevolent form of “Big Brother”. Because He is God, He is omniscient. His knowledge of us should comfort and encourage us, not scare and intimidate us. His desire is that we live before His face moment by moment motivated by love, gratitude, and desire for His glory, not by fearfulness.

            May the Lord help us to live with a greater sense of His presence, and may that produce a deep joy within us, and a life that pleases Him. Amen.

Psalm 139:1-13 (NIV) ¹  O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. ²  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. ³  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. ⁴  Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. ⁵  You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. ⁶  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. ⁷  Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? ⁸  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. ⁹  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, ¹⁰  even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. ¹¹  If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," ¹²  even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. ¹³  For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

Proverbs 15:3 (NIV) ³  The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

1 Peter 3:12 (NIV) ¹²  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

PRAYER:  Lord, may the thought of your knowledge of me lead me to joy, and may I live for you out of love in my heart, and may I be true, so that what I am before others and what I am before you are the same. And may my life bring you praise. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!  

Scott