The Joy of Decreasing
John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John 3:27-30 ESV
This is the way John the Baptist answers the questions about people leaving him and going to follow Jesus. It is really beautiful that his opening statement is an acknowledgment that anybody that ever came and listened to him was a gift from God. Every single person that walked by Garvin park yesterday, or breezed by an image or video on Facebook of a baptism, is a gift from God. Every person that parks their car in front of our house to change a tire, asks for some cash to make it until payday, or is sitting in the next booth at a restaurant with a look of defeat has been brought into our circle of influence as a gift from God.
John the Baptist did exactly what he was supposed to do with everyone he came in contact with: he pointed them to the next guy. He even had disciples that when Jesus walked by, John told them “That’s the guy that is going to take away the sins of the world,” and they left to follow Jesus.
Spending our conversations and our motives on pointing people to Jesus and not ourselves isn’t an easy task! The fact that “Selfies” and “TL;DR” (Too Long; Didn’t Read) have both become words for the Oxford English Dictionary shows that we’d much rather talk about ourselves than read about anyone else. It’s not in our nature to say and promote good things about other people, especially if it draws attention away from us.
John’s joy became complete as he moved on from being the center of attention and attention turned to Jesus. In the same way, our joy is complete when people move from seeing the awesome music, lights, programs, etc and start to see the Jesus to whom all of this is aimed. When you start having church at a pizza shop, Bible studies in the back of a moving van while helping a family move, or prayer time for a co-worker in an office at work, the kingdom of Heaven is among you.
What are ways that you can decrease so that Jesus may increase? What are ways that your joy would be more complete?