The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.

John the Baptist, John 3:29-30

I’m blessed with a lot of guy friends, and most of them are people Melissa and I are both close with. A lot of these guys were in my wedding, and one of the best parts of that day was having our friends there to rejoice with us. I wanted my brothers there with me, guys I had lived with, prayed with, shared all kinds of things with, as I went into this new part of life.

You know what I would absolutely not have wanted? One of these guys to try to steal the show. I would not have liked it at all, for example, if Duane had tried to cut in on me & Melissa during our first dance. Or if JG had interrupted my thanks to my in-laws, or if Dan kept coming up and trying to talk to Melissa while we were trying to have a moment. I wouldn’t have liked any of these things at all, because while I loved having those guys there, they weren’t the point of the day. The point for me was Melissa, and the point for her was me.

But in the relationship John is talking about here, the relationship between Christ and his church, it’s easy for me to be that guy who cuts in on the bride & groom. When I want people to think about what a good sermon I preached, or what a good lesson I taught, or what a good blog post I wrote, that’s exactly what I’m doing: cutting in on Jesus and his bride. I am, at best, a groomsman. My job is to point the bride to the groom. When the bride hears the bridegroom’s voice, I shouldn’t want her looking at me, I should want her looking at him. That should make my joy complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.