Say this out loud, “I must decrease.” How about this: “Less of me.” Hard isn’t it. It’s unnatural for us to believe that we should decrease. It’s easier to say “More of Jesus, Less of Me.” or “Jesus must increase. I must decrease.” When we bring Jesus in, it makes it hard to think we should do anything but decrease. We can focus on the “Jesus must increase” part and not give much thought to our reduction.
In the real world, we think of Jesus as a way for us to increase. He is the Healer, the Mountain Mover, the Gift Maker. He is those things but when we repeat them we mean that Jesus is here to give me what I want. He is here to make me all that I can be. That doesn’t sound like a decrease. We shake our heads in disgust at the “prosperity” gospel, but are okay with “Jesus is my co-pilot.” Jesus isn’t around to help us fly our planes. He’s flying His own plane. We are blessed just to be passengers. We are truly blessed when we get to play some small part in the mission.
So just how should we decrease?
We should think more of others than ourselves. We should wake up eager to do something for someone else.
We should go a step further and realize that we should be used to help others. The help doesn’t come from us. We are but tools of the Helper.
We should stop living like it’s all about us.
We should put our disappointments, hurts, and offenses where they belong: behind us.
We should stop worrying about getting the credit and shrug it off when we get the blame.
We should be living purpose-driven lives. That doesn’t mean having higher purposes, but living for His purposes.
I look at the list I just typed and feel very disappointed in myself. Maybe that’ a good first step.
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