“He must increase, but I must decrease.” — John 3:30 (ESV)
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Generally speaking, the less that referees are discussed after a sporting event, the better. It means that they weren’t the story — the product on the field or the court was, as it should be. If referees do make headlines, it’s usually for a controversial call, a call they missed altogether, or a poor performance throughout the game. When referees do their jobs well, the athletes get the attention while few recognize the referees and even fewer know their names. They have a job to do at the game, but the game itself is not their story to tell.
Likewise, every person on earth — whether they realize it or not — isn’t here ultimately to tell their own story. All of life, and indeed all of creation, is God’s story. It was God at the beginning of time, and it’ll be God at the end. It’s a story of a perfectly just and perfectly merciful God creating all of humanity and then choosing a people to call His own. Those people went astray in their sin, but God in His goodness redeemed them from their sin through the blood of Christ on the cross and reconciled them to Himself.
The story is the Gospel, and God is the star all the way through. He’s the hero, the protagonist. And, He did it all for His glory, which is our good. It’s God’s grand story. You and I are just very small parts of it.
Perhaps no one better understood that he wasn’t the main character than John the Baptist, who proclaimed of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, ESV).
John the Baptist wasn’t out for his own gain or to make much of himself, and in fact, his ministry cost him his life. Rather, John the Baptist advanced God’s story by preparing the way for Jesus, and now he’s resting securely in the arms of his Father in Heaven.
Ask yourself as you go about your day today, “How can I glorify God in what He’s called me to do? How can He increase in my life while I fade into the background?”
Remember, we are at our happiest when we stop trying to be the star of the show and acknowledge that God is, and He always will be.
— Kevin Mercer
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