I Am Not

I had the opportunity to preach this past Sunday. The last Sunday of the year. It was quite an honor. Of course, it always is to me. I love every chance I have to speak, but it provides me with a great deal of anxiety. When you only have the opportunity to do something every six months or so, you’re typically not in good enough practice just to pull it off without any hitches. I think Sunday went pretty decent, and I didn’t even cry…too much (which is a continual problem for me, as I cry…alot. I’m a big baby).

The passage that we decided to unpack was John 3.30, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”

One powerful phrase from John the Baptizer almost 2000 years ago, and still rocking our world today. You see, John had the opportunity to hijack the story and claim the glory all for himself (go ahead, check out the story at the end of chapter 3). He could have given in to his human nature and decided not to step out of the fame that was growing surrounding his name and ministry, but he chose not to.

I shared about how small our story was, and I hope I got the point across. I also shared a few stories about how I am continually living as if the story was about me, how I’m continually searching for my glory, and trying to increase it. My desire is always that I could live out John 3.30 and skip these issues of trying to advance myself and my name. Just a few minutes ago, I looked down below to see my stats. You know, how many people are reading my blog, how many people are visiting this site and learning my name, yada, yada.

Well, I decided to pull out the stats on my page so that I won’t look at them anymore. I don’t need to know that. I need to share my story and continue to pray that God is using it to minister to people for His glory, but I don’t need to know for my advancement.

I’m going to quit telling biscuet he’s famous because really I’m jealous about how many people he knows. I’m just going to be happy and humbled that I have such a great friend like him to talk to on iChat whenever I can.

And, I’m gonna do my best not to “be humble” and act like its not about me in front of people so they’ll think “wow, he’s so humble and really doesn’t make the story about him,” when really, I’m just putting on a show.

There are dozens more of these “I am not’s,” and I hope that I can hold to them. When you see me acting like the story is about me, kick me…hard.