It’s surprising to most of us how often we are captured on camera nowadays.  From surveillance cameras to cellphones to normal videography, we are surrounded, or so it seems.  This is increasingly true even in rural areas of our own country.  In certain cultures (China, for example), facial recognition has made such scrutiny pervasive, personal, and disturbing.  It seems that our whereabouts and our activities are no longer private.  Some have sounded alarms, but they generally go unheeded.  Either we are willfully ignoring it or we really don’t care.  Many of the younger folks around our culture just take it for granted, accepting it as part of our modern way of life.

There is another kind of surrounding that has been carrying on for much longer.  However, it might be more comforting and less alarming…  We are encompassed by some who have walked our path before, and are cheering us on to perseverance.

A passage out of the book of Hebrews says it best.  In Hebrews 12:1-13, the author likens life for a believer with someone running a marathon.  Verse 1 begins, “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…”  I am often struck by this analogy.  Certainly, a member of a sports team knows that their every movement is eagerly observed by those sitting in the stands, watching on television, or closely observed by the referees.  They are continuously cheered on (or not) by their fans.  The witnesses are there for the most part as watchers.  But some of them are there as living examples of how the sport should be played – former stars, coaches, or pioneers of said sport.  They are witnesses of a different sort, demonstrating qualities that can be a model for others who follow in their wake.

I believe the author of Hebrews had both in mind when they wrote those words – the observers and the examples.  But rather than sports personalities, the folks are those who have walked in faith, often amidst severe persecution and mistreatment, trusting Jesus Christ and enduring until the end of their races.  Their perseverance and patience show those of us who follow what real faith looks like.  And their observation provides for us an incentive to carry on in their footsteps, running like they did, faithful to the end.

One of the many intriguing aspects of this way of life is that it minimizes the threat of the other kind of witnesses – the surrounding surveillance of our lives via worldly (and not necessarily kindly) technology.  If we walk a life of faithfulness, as Paul says in Galatians 5:22-23, “Against such things there is no law.”  He is speaking, of course, of walking a life guided and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit, and the fruit of such a life is unquestionable.  Simply put, if our lives are pleasing to God, lived according to His Spirit’s guidance, “he makes even his enemies live at peace with him,” (Proverbs 16:7).  If our lives demonstrate our love for Jesus Christ, then we are showing it to anyone watching, whether it’s someone in the same aisle at the grocery store or peering at us through a video lens.

So, when I’m feeling vulnerable and just a little over-exposed, I’m starting to look at it as something other than a threat.  To use a modern euphemism, it’s time to start treating our lives as “platforms” – bases from which to lift up a life-changing message.  After all, athletes and celebrities do that all the time!  So rather than shy from the limelight, I’m starting to think that being surrounded is a good thing.  It’s time to be a witness in both the classic and current sense of the word.

After all, that’s what Jesus told us to do.  “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

It’s time we lived into the privilege!