Greater Than

"[Christ] must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less"

--(John the Baptist in John 3:30, NLT)

I was recently a part of a youth retreat at Ocean City, NJ. Eighteen students and 9 adults attended. I spoke 4 times on the theme, "Jesus Is Greater Than..." John the Baptist's life and words were the motivating message. My specific challenge was for everyone to commit to a life that makes Jesus famous.

So, following Saturday night's message, about a dozen students and adults came forward to commit something in their lives that they were making greater than Jesus. A relationship? Their iPod? Their Facebook or MySpace pages? Their career? Anything. The challenge just kept coming at them, "Who are you making famous with your life? Is it Jesus or you?"

I shared personally with them that my life has been a series of moments where I had to make Jesus greater than something in my life, i.e. my music, my relationships, my career, etc. I even shared that the purpose of this blog was to make Jesus famous. (That's why I have stopped blogging about my beloved Bengals...it just makes me too angry and negative when I think about their below-than mediocrity level to which they have sunk).

Well, the moments of their commitments were powerful as each student and/or adult came to the front of the room to physically turn a makeshift "greater-than" sign (>) that stood beside the hanging letters, J-E-S-U-S. With "lesser-than" pointing at "Jesus," each individual turned the sign so that "lesser-than" was aimed at them and "greater-than" was directed at J-E-S-U-S.

As a result of this retreat, I've heard students say that they needed to take a closer look at their Myspace & Facebook pages to make changes that will bring less attention to themselves and more on Jesus. Others are going to read a chapter a day from the Gospels and meet weekly to talk about what they are reading. Some were convicted about their movie/entertainment choices and are putting greater time into deciding if the movie is something that helps them honor God.

It was a great experience to be with Devonshire students. And we've got great adult-leaders who care about these students enough to join them publically in making Jesus greater than. Join me in praying for our students as they make the changes that God has prompted in them so that Jesus might become famous to those people around them.