John the Baptist's disciples are worried: the crowds are leaving their master for Jesus. John's answer is the freest sentence a human being can say: He must become greater; I must become less.

Today's Judges chapters show the horror of a world where every self insists on being greater. John shows the joy of the friend of the bridegroom. Choose your pronoun order today.

Gibeah is what human beings become when every man is his own king and no life outranks appetite; the chapter's horror is the honest end of the self-enthroned road. John the Baptist stands at the opposite pole: a man so free of self-promotion that his own shrinking audience made him glad, because the Bridegroom's voice was finally the loudest thing in the room.

He must become greater; I must become less is not self-erasure; it is the friend's joy at the wedding, the creature's delight in Psalm 104's generous Creator. Every day hands you dozens of tiny throne decisions, credit, attention, the last word. Practice John's arithmetic in a few of them today, and notice the freedom that follows.