It never really was about me. I would have loved to keep it that way. I started out that way. We all did. Babies. Our center of our universe? Ourselves. We thought we were the world. We were the only thing that mattered. Funny, we may be forty or fifty, and we still act like the world revolves around us. We have a hard time doing otherwise.
John was losing. Losing his clout. Losing his followers. Another man had taken up the mantle and was now baptizing as John did. John's followers were indignant. How dare this man start baptizing...isn't John the one that started it all?! He is named John the Baptist for a reason! Yet, it was slipping. John had competition. His response comes as a shock...one of a man that knows that he isn't the center of anything. Not the center of Jesus' ministry. Not the center for all baptisms. Not the center of the universe.
"A person can receive only what is given them from heaven." -John 3:27
John's ministry and his influence would only last but a moment. He only had this influence because it had been given to him.
"He must increase, but I must decrease." -John 3:30
John realized that the best way to count is when you don't. We must decrease. We must not count ourselves as the center because we never were. He must increase. God is the one that counts. God was at the center of what John and the other baptizers were doing. It never really was about John. And yet, John will never be forgotten throughout history. His story counts. John's ministry of leading the way for Christ counts simply because John got out of the way.
Can we do the same? Can we decrease when every fiber of our being screams for control and recognition? Can we give up the center of the universe that we really never possessed to start out with? Can He become bigger in our lives as we become smaller?
Because the best way to count is when you don't count yourself as the center.
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