Preparing for the Main Attraction

Written September 2006
I have been preparing a lesson on a guy that sometimes we pass by to concentrate on the main attraction. John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, I can't imagine what this guys was like. I believe he smelled had crazy Unabomber hair, and had irregular bowl syndrome (eating locust and honey, what a combo) yet people for some reason listened to him. So much so that he had disciples that followed him sharing the message, “Repent, for the Kingdome of heaven is near."
And about this message, this guy's whole existence was for one reason, to prepare the way for the Christ. Wow, what a job. He went around baptizing people as a sign of repentance of their sin. And then he told them to be ready for another one that was coming that would baptize them with the Holy Spirit. In fact John did not consider himself worthy of carrying his cousin's sandals. His cousin who he probably went to celebrate the Passover feast with, and saw as each of them went through their Bar Mitzvah in the same year. He wasn’t worthy of carrying this guys sandals.
In life today we are always looking for where we fit in, what our mission in life is, what God has predestined us to do. Wouldn't it be great to know our job like John did? To know what our ministry is, what passion God has put us here on this earth for. What contentment it must have been to know you are in the smack dab center of God's will.
But it occurs to me, what if our call, our mission is much like John's. Sure he was set apart for a particular time to live his out. But what if we went about our life taking steps of faith that serve as an avenue to prepare the way for the messiah that will come. That is what we are here for right, to go and make disciples, to through the power given by the Holy Spirit make known the mystery of the gospel to all the world. As a Christian I believe that Jesus is coming back, I have no idea when this is happening but I know he is just as John knew that is cousin was about to start shaking things up. So my life should be about preparing the way for the one who I am unworthy to carry his sandals, but who has made me worthy through the his death and his defeat of death. The statement that John makes in John 3 has been on my mind since I heard a message on it at Church camp this summer. In verse 30 he says "He must become greater, I must become less." Wow, what a mission statement. This was at a time when John was becoming less popular, his church was shrinking, he was about to be put in prison. When told of his group getting smaller he makes this awesome statement. What if our lives were lived like that, if our goal was for Christ to increase and us to truly decrease. Then our lives would not be about us and we would fulfill the greatest commandment, we would Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then much like it as a result we would love our neighbor as ourselves. Then we would truly be preparing the way for the main attraction that is to come.