Who is your audience?

I'm still reading Thomas Merton. His idea that jumped into my heart this week was

"If you write for God you will bring joy to many... if you write for yourself you will hate it and want to die."

Is this statement even true? Is our favorite contemplative monk showing histrionics or does he have a point? I think his statement relates to some of the ideas I wrote about earlier. Whenever we follow a calling to share love, we are not doing it for self aggrandizement because if we are, then we aren't sharing love, we are serving ourselves. Matthew 6:24 says we can't serve two masters, we either love God, or we love money (or ourselves, or the world and its stuff).

If we do everything to show our love for God, why do we bother to share our thoughts and words with others? If we are writing (or speaking or singing etc) for God, why does it need to be in public? Why can't we just make it a part of our prayer life?

It just so happens I have a story about that:

I was sitting in silent worship at my Quaker meeting about 20  years ago.  I suddenly got an idea that made my throat want to explode. I knew that I was either going to stand up and talk or I was going to throw up. Literally the thought was in my heart so quickly and ferociously that I really wasn't sure what words I was going to say. I stood up and said something about forgiveness and how it related to both the message given that day by our pastor and my situation in life at that time. I sat down, and I felt completely normal again, like nothing had ever happened. After the service was over, folks thanked me for sharing, but I honestly couldn't remember what all I had said. I think this is an instance when God meant for me to share a thought with othersf. This instance, and the several others that have come after it, are examples of doing something for God's glory, for God's people, and not for personal gain. If I hadn't gotten up, whether it be from shyness or lack of faith, then I wouldn't have been following God's lead. If I had gotten up with a message about my own interests, I wouldn't have been serving God either.

One of my favorite hymns says that we are God's hands and feet, and though it can mean that we are  part of the body of Christ that is mentioned in Romans 12:5, I also think that we are here to work for God, and working for God means sharing love.