More or Less

John 3:30 says, “He must become greater, I must become less.” I cannot even really explain this thought process better than how it is said.

This is John’s reply to those who followed him, and it was driven because they were saying things about how Jesus was out there, (the one John the Baptist testified about), baptizing and how it seemed that people were going away from John the Baptist, and to Jesus instead. John understood his role and states something so profound. He says, and this is a rough paraphrase: Everything we receive is from heaven,  you guys know that the bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he sees him. I have this joy. John understood a simple truth, Jesus is the Bridegroom. We, the sinners, the broken ones, we are the bride. John was the friend who waited on the Bridegroom. So John basically says, this is my role, to go before and baptize in the name of the man who is here now, and I am content being where I am because of something very simple, for me to accomplish what it is I set out to do, Jesus (He) must become greater, and John (I) must become less. Simple.

Makes sense right? But how many times do we, as Christians fall into this position. We work for years to get that one person to church and all of a sudden you find out a friend not only took him to church for the first time, but led him to the Lord. Some look at that and are saying, “Hallelujah! that is amazing!” But if there is an honesty in all of us, we have to admit, at least to some degree, that we feel a sort of frustration, or possibly, if you are anything like me, tug of jealousy. This is where I come to grips with my shadow mission.

The idea of this shadow mission was introduced to me this past weekend as I helped to lead a youth winter retreat for Hopevale Church, where I am currently an intern. Mike Garner was the speaker, and he was introducing John Ortberg’s idea of the shadow mission to the youth. I was enthralled to see the effects of this idea with the students. The idea of a shadow mission, and I encourage you all to pick up John Ortberg’s book entitled Overcoming Your Shadow Mission if you are more curious of this idea. I haven’t personally read it, but I intend to. But the main idea is, from small research on the topic, that we all have a mission. We either choose to serve God with what we say and do, or we choose to serve our shadow mission. Often the shadow mission can overlap the truest, most sincere mission, and can take you just far enough off the course to eventually destroy your mission.

My shadow mission is my pride. I constantly am fighting against this idea of what I will call Brentism. It’s a real disease I assure you. This disease you will never contract, it is only carried by one person, me. You may have your own forms of Brentism, but you will never have my form of Brentism cause it is unique. My shadow mission would be to take the gifts of teaching and communicating and use those things to exalt myself. When I was in small groups at this retreat, I could only think about how being a 23 year old man speaking in a youth group could destroy me if I am not careful. I do not mean that I should stop speaking because I have this Brentism, I just need to make sure that when I speak it is not about Brent. I need to be sure that the communication skills that I have been given by God are used to further God’s glory, not mine. I can do this by making sure the communication is relevant. A lot of this battle does not take place outwardly. Brentism is unfortunately, a heart disease. It is a resolve of my heart. I cannot be cured of this disease, because the moment I feel like I am is the moment it will start to creep up again, I can only fight against the disease. It all starts within the heart. What is it that I want to accomplish through communicating? Why do I want to write about these things I am writing now? What do I want to accomplish by teaching others, by helping others? You get my point. No one can answer that for me, or for you, except the person with the disease.

So why do I say all of this? That would bring us back to how I started. John knew his mission, and I believe John the Baptist ALSO knew his shadow mission. John the Baptist’s shadow mission was probably a form of Brentism. It was probably called Johnism. A simple statement that John made a long time ago shows profound meaning today. To put down his shadow mission, John said this: He must become greater, and I must become less. Because John’s mission was not to be the Savior of the world and he knew it, John’s mission was to lead the way and then to continue to talk about the Savior of the world.

Do you currently struggle with your own form of Brentism? If you do, take some time to ponder it, get the materials you need, read the books you need to read, to help fight against the disease you have. Make an effort to search your own heart and explore whether you have a form of Brentism, and fight against it with everything you have.

Jesus must become greater, Brent Ferris must become less.