For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
-- Galatians 1:10 (ESV)
Augustine, Confessions:
"Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee." The restless heart seeks approval everywhere -- in the eyes of men, in the weight of accomplishment, in the silence after a task well done. But no human gaze can still what was made for God alone. Every approval that is not His is a counterfeit that spends quickly and leaves the soul emptier than before.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship:
"Jesus Christ did not call men to a new religion, but to life. But the world prefers to be deceived. It takes offense at the lowliness of the narrow way and prefers the broad road of its own devising." The narrow road does not ask whether others are watching. It does not adjust its pace for an audience. The man who walks it walks it because the Master walked it first -- and that is sufficient.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Statues:
"Nothing is so apt to show the greatness of a soul as this -- to be lifted above the praise of men, and to trample upon the glory of this present life. For he who is insensible to human applause possesses a kind of fortress and citadel against all the attacks of the devil." The devil's most effective weapon is not suffering. It is the quiet, corrosive hunger to be thought well of. The man who cannot bear to disappoint has already surrendered the ground the enemy will use.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ:
"He who seeks anything but God alone and the salvation of his soul will find nothing but tribulation and sorrow. He who does not seek to become the least and the servant of all is not able to stand in peace." Discipline is not the accumulation of habits that make you impressive. It is the slow, daily mortification of the need to be seen doing them. The disciplined life is invisible to the audience -- and that is precisely the point.
What did you do today that you would have done differently -- or not at all -- if no one were watching?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.3:
"Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Sanity means tying it to your own actions." The emperor wore purple and ruled the known world, and still he wrote this to himself in the dark, alone. Reputation is a leash held by strangers. The man who hands it over has chosen his master poorly.
St. Clair, MI:: Clear, 61°F at dawn. Humidity 90%, winds SE at 10 mph. A clean morning -- the kind that rewards the man who is already moving when it arrives.