Who Are You when Nobody is Looking?

I remember back when I was about five years old, I used to walk to elementary school alone. On the way one day, Bam! I stopped in my tracks! I couldn’t believe what I saw! There was a burning paper towel, blowing across somebody’s lawn! I quickly jumped into action, and stomped it out with my cheap pair of “rejects,” i.e. department store sneakers back then. When I was done, I looked around to see if anyone saw that I had just saved the world! I had integrity! I think.

Ask yourself the question. Who are you when nobody is looking? Better yet, what are you doing when nobody is looking? Do you pick your nose? Do you pull out that deep wedgie? Do you scratch your butt? I mean, really scratch your butt, type scratch your butt? Do you? Naw!

As humans, we do. We also do a lot of things we probably shouldn’t. For example, do you run a red light in the middle of the night? Nobody is looking, right? Are you in the church by day, and in the club by night? A little skirt-lifting, booty shaking never hurt anyone, right? Does everyone in your dorm share the same Netflix account? Of course not! Yeah, everybody is doing a little something they probably shouldn’t be doing!

How many times have you gone to the grocery store and it said, “Limit 4 per variety” and you leave and came back the next day and bought 4 more. Some of you, the same day! And what’s this about you looking to see how much somebody else’s house cost on Zillow?

It gets deeper. Are you secretly hating, because your home girl lost some weight? Was that your dream? Are you doing the “slow clap” and side-eye, after your coworker got the promotion you wanted? Even when you’ve been slacking on the job? Are you stealing from the cookie jar? Is the jar located in your church? Are you getting a little too close to your best friend’s man? Like, might be pregnant type of close? Are you lying about lying, while lying about lying? Everybody is doing something they shouldn’t.

Again, who are you when nobody is looking? If you know, that you know, that you know that you struggle with doing right, then what can you do about it? The answer is try. Try your best to be the best you can. At least get it right 80% of the time. You can let God forgive you for the rest. Other than that, there isn’t much you can do. Wait! There is one more thing you can do. Yeah! Join the crowd, because hint, nobody is perfect.