Know Your Role

John 1:8

“He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.”

I enjoy watching a good play. It has always fascinating to me how people can memorize lines and place themselves in the shoes of different characters of the story. I also think it is interesting how there are some characters that only have to memorize a couple lines and they serve a small role as the background characters. However, most of the time, those background characters are still very important to the overall narrative of the play. It’s all about them knowing the role of the character they are playing.

Today’s scripture is about John the Baptist, who was Jesus’ cousin. He was prophesied many years before in the book of Isaiah 40:3 as “the one calling in the wilderness to prepare a way for the Lord. make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Years later, He baptized Jesus just before He started his 3 year ministry. There is a lot more to John the Baptist’s story, but I really want to focus on the role he played in the gospel story. He, like many other characters in the Bible, were imperfect humans that God used in mighty ways to bring His glory to the Earth. John himself was not the light but he prepared the way so that the true light of the World could get the glory.

Today, I want you to consider the role you play in life. Are you making yourself the main character of the story or are you living so that God gets the glory? Are you living to serve yourself only or are you serving others around you? When you take the pressure off of yourself to be perfect and to measure up to your version of what is “good enough” you free yourself to live an abundant life. Every day we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, but He sent his one and only son into the world to forgive us of all of our sins and give us a brand new beginning. Once we receive His forgiveness, our role is to be a witness and share the light with others so they can also know the good news!