So I am back on the wagon and working hard to get into great shape. I am eating sensibly, working out 5 days a week and playing some softball as well. All of this I am hoping is the recipe for me to decrease in size and weight. It's far cheaper to lose a little weight, and stay in fit condition than to buy all new clothes.
But this isn't the type of decrease I want to discuss with you. Decreasing is a sign of humility, it is humbling yourself to the point of allowing someone else to have full control. When we are really, really sick we ask God to take control and take away the pain and the sickeness. Why don't we just concede all control far before that point so that He can increase.
In John, John the baptist says this,"He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Think about those words very carefully. We are talking about a man who was thought by some to be Christ. Many followed him and listened to him thinking he was Jesus himself. But, repeatedly we see John in a position of having to clarify that point. Now, does that sound like someone who needs to decrease and have Christ increase? Not to me it doesn't. BUt still he made this comment, he felt the need to be less of himself and more of Christ.
I think of it in these terms. When I was single and starting out in college I was on my own(so to speak). I lived at home with my parents, I was however only responsible for me. I worked 2 jobs, made a lot of money for someone my age and eventually I was able to buy exactly the truck I wanted brand new off the lot. I was able to start saving up and eventually buy a nice car trailer and then a racecar. I spent my money on me and m needs/wants and that is who I was responsible for. It was all about me, I didn't concern myself a whole lot with the needs of others. THen, I got married to Tara and my thoughts about such things changed a bit. I was now finding myself concerned about our future, and our needs. I was now taking the time to meet her needs and our needs as a family. I had decreased and she had increased(not a fat joke, we all know I did the increasing in that area, haha). Then after about 7 months of marriage she was pregnant. I had not even adjusted all that welll to 2 people in the equation and now there were going to be three. yikes! I now find myself with two lovely little girls who are my world. I have decreased to almost nothing and it is all about them. I got my softball check which is extra money that we are putting away and decided to buy a few things with it. I bought some polly pockets for P.J. and a softball bat bag for Alexa. Not needs I know, but not the way I would have spent my hard earned money 9 years ago.
That is just a small piece of the equation as compared to what John the Baptist is saying. He is saying he needed to decrease to a point of thinking of JEsus, and His needs and then his own. Maybe not even taking his own wants into perspective at all.
Are you decreasing so that Christ can increase? Are you living in a way such that GOd is teh majority rule, and you are the minority in your own body. If not, I would suggest you think about John the baptist's example and pray about how you can follow it.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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