Cheyenne Seventh-day Adventist Church


723 Storey Blvd
Cheyenne, WY 82009-3557

 

He must become GREATER!
 
I MUST BECOME less!
 
John 3:30
 
     In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a tale from ancient India:  Four royal brothers decided each to master science,” said able to create its limbs if I have the flesh, the skin, and the hair.”  “And I,” concluded the fourth, “know how to give life to that creature if its form is complete.”  Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialties.  As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion’s.  One added flesh to the bone, the its mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators, killed them all, and vanished contentedly into the jungle.  What is the moral of the story?  We too have the capacity to create what can devour us.  Goals and dreams can consume us.  Pride, possessions and property can turn and destroy us unless we “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
 
     Dr. Sigmund Freud, one of the most distinguished psychologists of the 20th century, though not well known for spiritual insights, actually agreed with the Scripture when he said that one of the two primary driving forces in everyone is the desire to be great.  “Me-ism” is, because of the Fall, one of those characteristics everyone has to recognize common accomplishments, appreciate our achievements, admire our possessions, and do things our way.  To have you think this must surrender it to Christ.  “I must become less” means that my own agenda, wants, desires, plans, goals, intentions and remember the argument that started among the disciples in which one asks, “Lord, which of us is greatest?”  Jesus’ answer we become nothing in God’s eyes or in anyone else’s.  God counts every person special and unique and the object of His said, “he is truly great who deemeth himself small, and counteth all height of honor as nothing.”
 
     “He must become greater” is God’s overall guide for every facet of the Christian’s life.  Choices will have to be made constantly.  How can I put Christ first with the expenditure of my time, talent and money?  How can I put into practice the supremacy of Christ in my service, devotions and church attendance?  How can I strive for my conversation, opinions, desires and aspirations to be brought under Christ’s control every day?   To struggle with 
these constant tensions in life is not a sin.  But to ignore them when Scripture declares, “He must become greater; I must become less,” is to be what Charles Spurgeon describes as “wishing to be great, having failed to be good.”  On the other hand, as someone said, “if Christ, as Lord, is greater and is the center of our lives, the circumference will take care of itself.”  One Christian prayer concludes, “From the desire of being great, good Lord deliver us!
 
Pastor Don