Who Is Watching You? … Is It God?

If you think so … what will you do? … What will YOU do? … YOU!

As CCTV cameras scour the world in more-increasing numbers, we are all potentially ‘in the focus’ … We are all ‘being watched’:

Autocratic regimes, like China, do this quite blithely … we often see TV images of the results … pictures with ID numbers allocated to each and every citizen as they are viewed. “We know where you are and what you’re doing!” these pictures seem to say.

Sounds scary hey? And we haven’t brought ‘God’ into the picture … yet!

But suppose there is a God:

There are many who don’t believe that, but just for a while, I’m asking you all to go along with that idea, even if you are a non-believer … the idea that “God is everywhere and ‘all-seeing”. (Of course, there are many who DO believe that … maybe even you!).

We have now created a scenario similar to that shown in our lead picture, with God now operating a set of totally-comprehensive CCTV cameras. God is watching you … yes you … everyone is covered!

With such a ‘Godly’ scenario, China’s current efforts (as well as those of ‘democratic’ countries that deploy CCTV cameras, like the UK), look like a kindergarten exercise in comparison.

Some people DO feel WATCHED!:

I once saw a T-shirt with a messages on it that almost made me buy it. It said:

“I Love My Wife … when she lets me go fishing”

And talking of ‘wives’:

Winston Churchill the famous British Prime Minister, and Lady Astor (the first woman to become a Member of the British Parliament), were known for their witty and humorous exchanges. Here’s one:

Lady Astor: “If I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee”.

Churchill: “If I were your husband, I would drink it.”

And American President Barack Obama once said:

“It’s been probably 6 years since I had a cigarette … that’s because I’m scared of my wife!”

It’s a bit like: “I’d better be good … or else!” … cos someone IS watching me!

Who Do YOU think Is watching YOU?

Some Christians suffer what I call: ‘The “Jesus-is-watching-you” syndrome’.

I once wrote a quick-read fun story titled: “Fred Has Fun With A Parrot” in which a burglar was seriously disturbed by a voice that said:

“Jesus Is Watching You!” … “Jesus Is Watching You”

The burglar was a Catholic believer, and he got scared out of his skin! (I’ll put a link to that fun-story at the end of this article). Please find time to read it. I think you’ll enjoy.

Is this what God is like? Watching … ready to ‘zap’ you?

If you believe in God, is that what your God is doing? Watching; checking; keeping an eye on you? If God is all-seeing, then that’s a possibility hey?

Do you think that God is wanting you to be fearful; controlled; not free to be yourself? That’s certainly not the God that I want. How about you?

Or does God offer FREEDOM? ... freedom to do what you want. Freedom to choose … including the freedom to accept or reject even Godly guidance.

Freedom to choose gives you chance to say “NO” or “GO AWAY!”

or perhaps: “No, Not for now … I’m OK” … or “Thanks, but no-thanks!”

or “I’m quite comfortable where I am in life thank you”

It’s like saying: “NOT-IN-MY-BACKYARD”: (The ‘NIMBY’ syndrome)

Know what I mean? Let me tell you about MY actual backyard story:

It’s a story of a couple of parrots that visited my backyard some time ago. They were beautiful birds … one was all green in color, and the other had a lovely red head and neck area. I checked them in my bird book and identified them as King Parrots … (the male has the red head; the female is all green):

When they first arrived in my backyard garden area I thought it was quite exciting and I called my wife, saying: “come and see”, and we both admired these graceful birds. We thought that maybe we should set up a feeding table in the back garden to keep them coming … even perhaps a nesting box to encourage them to breed (at our place … wow!), but like so many ideas of this sort, I wasn’t too quick- off-the-mark, and after a couple of days, neither had been set up.

Three days later, the parrots came again, and that was when I realized that we didn’t want these parrots in our backyard after-all! Why was this?

Well, they were sat amongst my tomatoes … right in amongst the crop. They were eating all the young green tomatoes which were clearly just ‘right up their street’ for taste … finding them delectable. But for us, they were destroying a future crop of red tomatoes that are our delectable treats!

**** NIMBY **** NIMBY **** NIMBY … “Not in MY backyard, Thank You!”

NIMBY **** NIMBY: … “Not in MY backyard”.

So, what if GOD came into YOUR backyard?:

This question applies to people of all faiths … So, think about your God. But as an example, I’ll use Christianity to ‘test’ this idea. Try to imagine yourself as a ‘Jesus-believer” (just for a minute or so).

Now, imagine Jesus coming into your backyard.

“Look at the beautiful Jesus”, you might say (thinking about those pictorial Jesus images of serenity). You might think you’d like to listen to his stories of how he healed people; drove out demons; talked about forgiveness and can offer rest to the weary and those who are heavy-laden.

One Christians Hymn begins with these words: “Tell me the stories of Jesus, I love to hear. Things I would ask him to tell me, if He were here.”

For Jesus-believers he IS here! … and, if you accept the premise that your God is real (even if ‘God’ for you is other than the Christian God), then your God is not only here … your God is in your backyard … right now!

What if this God of yours IS in your backyard? … right now … In your very own PERSONAL backyard ... Your private, internal backyard: your mind; your body; your soul. Where you do all your private thinking.

What are you going to do about it?

We spend a lot of time protecting our personal backyards … thinking about what makes us comfortable don’t we? And if anyone tries to enter our private space (especially if they seem to be offering us personal advice that we feel uncomfortable with, and more-especially if they try to tell us that ‘we’ve got it wrong’, well, we know how we’d handle that don’t we!

We protect our personal backyards:

It’s as if there’s a door that only we can unlock. And even if it’s the beautiful Jesus knocking on that door, we need to unlock it if he is to enter.

It reminds me of a little story of some youths and a wise man:

This group of youths, like many other such ‘groups’, had a leader. The leader gave the instructions; he was the one who ‘had all the answers’.

One day, the group came across a wise man who was well-known for his wisdom quotes and life-guidance advice, and the leader decided that he would show off his own superior knowledge by asking the wise man to answer a question ... a question that he carefully prepared for, believing that it could never be answered correctly.

Before asking the wise man his question, he took a small bird from its cage and held it (hidden) between his hands. He then presented his hands to the wise man and said: “Tell me wise man, is the bird that is in my hands dead or alive?”

He had a plan: If the wise man said: “dead”, then he would open his hands, and the bird would fly away, alive. If the wise man said: “alive”, then he would crush the bird before opening his hands so that on opening his hands, the bird would be dead.

“Got him!, Got him!” was his thought … “Not so wise after all”, he’d then say.

The wise man first looked the youth in the eye, then, after scanning the watching group, he returned his glance to the leader, and said: *** “It is as YOU would have it be” … “It is as YOU would have it be” ***

If your God is knocking on the door of your soul today, it’s your decision as to whether you want him to come in. It is ‘as you would have it be’.

If you think that you can’t let him in until you’ve ‘got yourself right’, then you’ll never let him in.

But if God was to come into that private space that you treasure so much, surely, he’d know exactly what to expect … not a perfect angel; not an angel at all.

If you believe that your God is knocking on the door of your soul today, saying “follow me”, and you know he’s there, and you say:

‘I’ll wait til next week’; or ‘not yet a-while … I haven’t got myself right yet’; or ‘I’m quite comfortable where I am in life thank you’, then because you hold the key, God can only knock … “IT IS AS YOU WOULD HAVE IT BE”.

It is as you would have it! … As YOU would have it be!

A ‘takeaway’ thought:

What if this is the last time you hear this message (the last opportunity to get right with God) … maybe the only time … but the last time you hear it?

Are you willing to unlock that door? Ready to ask God into your life? Do the wise mans’ words apply?

Only you have the answer to this one … “It is as YOU would have it be”

Links to other related reads:

Fred Has Fun With A Parrot … A Jesus story that’s quite scary … but fun!

Fred Has Fun With The Bible … A fun-ride with serious spin-offs

Happy reading.

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‘Who Is Watching You? … Is It God?’ * written by Fred: writer on Medium ******** © Fred Ogden 2024 *******

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