In my area, we have a local celebrity. He is about 20 years old with dark skin and bleach-blond hair, and he brings sunshine and happiness wherever he goes. It’s his “thing” to dance. He dances all up one side of a major street in my town and all down the other. Every time I see him, I pray for him. More often than not, I think of Mark 8:36 and how much more good he could do if he were dancing for Jesus. What shall it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
Jay’s Success
We will call him Jay. In 100-degree heat, pouring rain, or winter storms, he’s out there. He has been dancing on our street since 2020, and the people in my town love him. His head bobs to the beat in his headphones, and he smiles and waves to passersby who smile and wave at him. When someone interviewed him and asked him why, he said, “I feel like I’m on stage and I’m out there performing…I like to put the smiles on people’s faces, and I like to put the positivity on, yeah.” His mom says that his autism keeps him up and moving, and it makes him happy to do it.
In fact, in addition to various YouTube channels, our local newspaper and TV station have both done stories on him. Our town’s Facebook group also occasionally discusses him and the positive impact he has had on local morale. He even gained national exposure recently when locals raised enough money to send him to his favorite artist’s concert where he received a special souvenir.
With the little burst of fame has come some opportunities. Companies have hired him to wear T-shirts with their business names. Sometimes he sticks to a particular intersection and spins a sign for the seafood restaurant nearby, and sometimes you can see him dancing with a vacuum near the vacuum store. One time I saw his mother commenting on the local Facebook group’s post about him. Companies were contacting her to see if he would be interested in affiliating himself with their businesses for profit. I decided to message her just to see if he would wear a T-shirt with the name of Jesus on it if I bought it. I told her on the main page that I would message her, and I did. She didn’t respond.
What Shall It Profit?
I just can’t help but think about how much good he could do for the Kingdom of God if that were his focus. As it is, his smiles and frenetic dancing make people happy for a minute in the natural. But then the moment is gone. What if he and his mother had taken me up on that Jesus shirt? What if the sign he held said, “Jesus still saves. Repent and believe”? What if he held a cross or a Bible instead of a vacuum? God has given him good health, stamina, time, and a personality that loves to smile and make people happy. What if he had taken all that God has given him and given it back to God?
The Implications Beyond
First I thought of my own life. Am I using my influence, talent, and time for Jesus to its full potential? Where is my focus and concern in every situation? Is it on the results in the here and now, or am I thinking about the eternal consequences of everything I do? For me, it’s something I can work on.
Then while I was right in the middle of writing this blog, I paused to watch this year’s class of my high school students graduate. As I prayed for each one of my former students as he/she crossed the stage to reach for a diploma, something else hit me. That boy I know who wants to cut hair. What if he used that barber chair to witness for Jesus? That girl who already signed the papers to join the Army. What if she brought Jesus with her into the barracks? That one who wants to work in business. That one who wants to be a teacher.
As student after student graduated, I realized that they all have opportunities to make a difference in this world. They could make a difference in the next world, too, if they would submit their lives to Christ. The choice was up to each of them, and one day there would be consequences either way.
Judgment Day for All
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
2 Corinthians 5:10
In fact, on judgment day, we will ALL stand to give an account. Unbelievers – young and old, rich and poor, and famous and forgotten – will all have their time in front of the Great White Throne Judgment and then their part in the Lake of Fire. Believers will stand at the Bema Seat where our work will be tested and revealed. 1 Corinthians 3:13-14 says, “Every man’s work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.”
This world is passing away. For all our effort, time, treasure, and talent, the only things that will matter in eternity are the things that are done for the Kingdom of God. Click To TweetHis Reward Is with Him
“And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
Revelation 22:12
James 4:14 says our life is but a vapor and John 9:4 tells us to work the works of Him who sent us while it is day. While the world, the flesh, and the devil might try to make us feel like the here and now is most important, the Bible is clear. We have two choices with what to do with the many blessings God has bestowed upon us. We can live for ourselves and the rewards and applause of the world, or we can live for Jesus. One is temporal. The other is eternal. CT Studd said it best in his poem from 1870. “Only one life,’ twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
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As I was reading this story I was weeping internally for that young man!! What a sad indictment to his mother that he was not bought up to know Jesus. These kids make wonderful Christian’s. It brought to my mind a young couple in my church who have a family of 6 kids & their third daughter is a special needs child & because she is growing up in a loving Christian environment she loves Jesus & is the happiest little girl around. They have home schooled their children & so they are well adjusted kids growing up into loving young adults. It has been a joy to watch them grow over the past 10 or so years I have been attending the church. In fact after being in lock down for nearly 2 years it was such a shock to see the growth in all our children as we came back to worshiping in person as some had gone from childhood into young teens & others from toddlers into children. Others from short to suddenly tall. I just hope that it never happens again. That next time the people of God will realise that it is an attack from Satan to close down the churches & will fight the rules & regulations imposed upon us by an evil government.
We are having a war in Australia for our democracy. The government of the Australian Capital Territory just announced that they are taking over Calvary Hospital which is owned by the Catholic church as of now. They want to turn the hospital into one that practices abortion on demand & euthanasia, both practices Calvary hospital refused to participate in. I also heard that Canberra had a third hospital which the government took over & for whatever reason blew it up. A girl was killed by flying debris & others missed being severely injured. So what our woke, leftist government is upto is frightening. Blessings in Jesus
Frightening, indeed. A brother in Christ and I were just talking about the soon return of Jesus. It is hard to imagine things getting worse, but somehow they keep doing that. Come quickly, Lord!