Step Aside, Your Job Is Done
He must become greater; I must become less. John 3:30 (NIV)
I am facing this kind of feeling right now as my little charge is headed to a much-needed day care in August. He needs to be around other children his age, socialize, play and experience a more formal education. Like Ellen Fannon (All God’s Creatures), I have taken him about as far as I can and it’s time to let go.
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Bobbie wore his little blue guide-dog-puppy-in-training cape whenever we went out in public. Usually, he was well behaved except for the time I took him to a veterinary conference and he sat under the table and chewed on the tablecloth. Or the time he refused to go into the video store, and I ended up having to carry him. Or the many times he went to work with me and pooped on the carpet. But he did go to church every Sunday, and one night, while my son was supposed to be watching him, he walked the aisle for Jesus during the invitation.
Puppy raisers keep their dogs for about eighteen months. Shortly before Bobbie returned to the guide-dog school for his formal training and matching with a blind student, I noticed an abrupt change. He had transformed from a strong-willed, goofy Labrador puppy into a mature adult working dog. After hundreds of hours with Bobbie, literally taking him everywhere with me, now came the hard part. I had to give him up. Although I knew this was the goal all along—to be trained as someone’s eyes—I never realized how hard it would be to let him go. When Bobbie left for his final training, he took a little piece of my broken heart with him.
As difficult as it was saying goodbye, I knew I must decrease in Bobbie’s life while his new blind owner increased. I sometimes wonder if John the Baptist felt this way when the time came for him to step aside as Jesus’s ministry began. Probably not. John was way more altruistic than I am. Realizing I would no long be first in Bobbie’s life hurt. But he had a job to do. Sometimes it’s hard to be content to stand in the shadows when I want to remain on the center stage. But God did not call me to glorify myself. He called me to let His light shine through me. I need to remember my life is not “about me” but all about Him.
Father, help me remember that my purpose is to point others toward You, not myself. AMEN.