Another voice

It's all about me.

Spend any time with pre-school aged kids and you come to know this truth. They think...hey...it's all about me....deal with it! Unfortunately, we don't grow up out this attitude too readily or too quickly. Most conversations we have are one sided - ours being the prominent voice, so ready to tell "all about me".

When Jesus cousin John came into the Judean wilderness to preach and to baptize, he could have easily talked all about himself. He was a striking character - one who had shunned the comforts of this world for the message of God. He had a way of drawing people to himself...wooing they call it, and prompting repentance and the confessing of sin. In the fourth Gospel, John relates another opportunity for the Baptizer to point to himself. The Pharisees ask - "Are you the Christ? Elijah? The Prophet?" to each of these, John answers "No." He is but a voice-  calling in the wilderness - prepare the way of the Lord. As they try to trap him in a theological debate about Baptism - John refuses to get off message - He points instead to Christ. This voice, the one that points to Jesus alone is the voice that needs to trump all the other voices in our heads...particularly our own. Our own voice that speaks only in the darkness of our sin - our voice that tries to justify our behavior, that tries to make excuses, that tries to place ourselves above others - our voice is silenced by the voice of the one who points to the one true Light, Christ Jesus our Lord. Is it all about you? Yes, in a sense it is! All about you being delivered from darkness into the light. Yet when we speak, we speak not about our own victories and accomplishments, but instead about the victory of Christ and His cross FOR us! This is your NEW voice! Open your mouth...let it speak, shout, sing of God's love for YOU and for His world!