Where can I decrease to help someone increase?

On Thursday, I went to my Foundations Capstone class.  My teacher always starts the day off with a spiritual thought.  That day, his spiritual thought went something like this...

He told us the story of one time when he was playing in the NBA (the Noon Basketball Association, in case you were wondering) where a group of faculty members play basketball on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  About five years ago, he was playing with these guys, and he was guarding a short, 60-year-old guy.  When this older guy was about to take a shot, my teacher totally stuffed him.  Right after doing it, my teacher felt guilty, and decided that the next time that man was going to take a shot, he wouldn't take that chance away from him.  But, as the game went on, the 60-year-old's team didn't pass him the ball ever again, so he never got that chance to shoot.  My teacher took that one chance away from him!

So, five years later, this event is still haunting my teacher.  As he was thinking about it, he read in the New Testament something interesting.  In John 3:25-26, essentially what happens is that some of the men who were following John the Baptist asked him, "Remember that guy you baptized?  Everyone is following Him now, how does that make you feel?"  And John's response was, "He must increase, but I must decrease."  John wasn't mad at the fact that people were following Christ now, and he knew that his followers had to decrease in order for Christ's to increase.

Our teacher told us that this was such an amazing moment for him, because he realized that there were times in his life where he needed to decrease in order to allow someone else to increase.  And he ended his spiritual thought by saying, "I want you guys to think about where you can decrease in order to help someone increase."

I found that to be so interesting.  Where can I decrease in order to help someone else increase?  Where can I help someone so that, instead of feeling down and upset, they can feel happy and uplifted?  What can I do to serve?


Now, I ask you the same question.  Where can you decrease in order to help someone increase?  Trust me, it's amazing the kind of answers you receive when you truly think about this.