If today has you in the same place again, here's help

The most dangerous word you could encounter today is ‘again.’

While you may associate again with doing the things you enjoy, it can carry you into the danger zone of monotony. It can dull and desensitize you to crucial details. It can cause you to assume and presume you already know everything. And it can make you complacent.

Instead, consider a few shifts from John the Baptist that’ll keep your eyes open to what God is up to right in front of you.

Get familiar with God’s activity

Did you catch what John the Baptist said right before he pointed Jesus out?

“I myself did not know him…” (John 1:31)

How could John point at one he didn’t even know, let alone recognize? If you pay attention carefully, John could point because he’d been told what to look for. In other words, he had God’s words. What’s more - he believed those words.

If you want to get familiar with what God is up to, get familiar with God’s words.

They’ll give you eyes to orient you to his activity.

Make it a point to start pointing him out

No offense to your parents, but they were wrong: it is polite to point.

It’s the very best thing you can do for those around you. When you see evidence of Jesus’ presence and activity, point it out. With the pace and measure of all that people are going through these days, there’s need for someone in their lives to be watching and alerting when they detect God right in front of them.

If and when those people turn to follow Jesus - as two of John’s own disciples did - you’ll reap the same experience John the Baptist did: joy made complete.

Remind yourself of the magnitude of his purposes

Notice John’s phrase wasn’t just “Look, it’s Jesus!”

It was “Look, the Lamb of God!”

I wonder if at times we do ourselves a disservice in thinking that the world not only needs saving, but that we do that saving as “Jesus’ hands and feet” as it’s often said. The world has a Savior, and he has already come. This frees us to help others understand God’s desire for mercy, not sacrifice.

They’re released from having to be their own Savior, or expecting others to be what they can’t possibly be, and instead trusting in the Savior who has already come.

Are you in the ‘again’ today?

Same place, same people, same activities, same plans?

Take a cue from John the Baptist - when he was in the same place again with his disciples - and get that pointer finger ready.

Nathan