Life is a performance. It is a full-on production of the greatest story ever told. Shakespeare once wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts…”

Shakespeare knew that life is our opportunity to be a part of the most extraordinary performance ever put on. Every day that we awake, we face the stage of a lifetime. The chance to make a difference, the chance to influence others, the chance to live our purpose with passion. Life is too full of opportunity to hide out backstage in the shadows. We have too much within us to waste it. We have a part to play in this production of life and can’t lose time sitting in the darkness. 

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.

We are chosen as God’s special possession and are called to live in the light. Just like the lights on a stage that make a performer shine brightly for the crowd to see, so God’s light shines within us for others to see His power.

Life is about giving our all as we live up to the call and purposes God has given us. Our performance is not based on how loud the crowd cheers, but on our faithfulness to the journey set before us. One of the ways we get distracted in our performance is that we can become consumed with others opinions and criticism. Everyone will have an opinion about the way we perform, but we do not answer to them, we answer to God. We cannot allow the critics and naysayers to tear us apart.

Never let what others say about you become more important than what God says about you. Never believe what others say about you over what God says about you. There will always be those that will judge our performance negatively no matter what we do. It is never good enough for them, not the way they would have done it, never the “right” way. Theodore Roosevelt said this at the Sorbonne lecture in 1910…

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly… who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who have… known neither victory nor defeat.”

We will never be able to perform our very best if we live in fear of the crowd. We have to outlast our critics and be committed to giving our all. Critics will come and go, but we must live with ourselves at all times. When you truly give your best performance, you can live with the truth that you did your best. Never let the critics control your destiny, let your performance prove your destiny. When you are committed to give your all and perform at your highest level, others will notice and see your faithfulness.