The Illusion of Privacy

We as a people are of two minds about privacy.

On the one hand, privacy is something that we desperately hold on to.  We deeply reverence (and rightly so, in my opinion) the concept of individual privacy, that the individual has the right to lead their life untrammeled by the government wherever possible. On the other hand, we enjoy the free flow of telling information about our selves.  We happily discuss the activities of our lives on social forums.  We constantly carry on conversations which we scarcely realize are very easy to hear to those next to us.  We transfer to marketers all the information they want - and more - freely.

But underlying all of this is the concept that we have a right - granted to us by the universe - of a private life.

What if this is not so?

We only deal with the privacy in the context of our fellow humans.  What they do not see or hear is, in our minds, to us alone.  But there is a third party present at each second of our lives, at each moment of our activities:  God.

In reality, we are never truly alone.  We never have a truly private moment.  The walls we erect and the windows we cover do not hide us from the gaze of the Creator of the Universe.

What would our lives be like if we truly understood this concept?  Think of the times you have sinned in the dark or alone or completely isolated from others and have thought "No-one will know or ever find out".  That's simply not true.  Even alone in our mind, we still stand revealed to God.  There are no secret sins.

On the other hand, think of the times you have been steadfast or alone at a task or wounded in the deep parts of your soul.  Neither are these moments private.  The God who sees and comforts records all of these moments as well, ready to repay and reward someday.

If we grasped - truly grasped - that we are always with God and all our actions and thoughts are visible to Him, how would this change our lives?