Today’s reading is John 3: 22-30

It would have been easy for John the Baptist to have resented Jesus.  I mean, he was out there preaching, baptizing, do all this hard work. Everything was going great.  People were turning from their sin, turning to righteousness, getting baptized, everything.  And here comes this Jesus.  Getting all the attention. All the praise.  Even taking some of John’s followers.  What, however, does John say?  He must increase, and I must decrease.

Man, that’s hard.  None of us really want to humble ourselves.  None of us want to shrink away. We all want attention. We all want praise.  We all want these things. But John knew they weren’t about him. They were about Jesus.  It wasn’t about his life or what he wanted it; it was all about Jesus.  And if Jesus was the center, the one lifted up; then everything would work out just right.

John decreased.  Jesus increased.  In that, John found his purpose and his life.  In Jesus.

What about us today?  Are we willing to decrease so Jesus can increase?  Life is found in that.  Not in living for ourselves, but in living for Jesus.  That is life.  Today may we decrease.  May Jesus increase.  May we live.

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