False humility doesn't do God ... or you any good.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 2:00PM 
Once again, I ran across the phrase, "More of you, less of me" in another popular Christian artist's worship song. The sentiment is noble, but misguided, and it denies the true nobility of our new nature. But didn't John the Baptizer say just the same thing: "He must become greater; I must become less.” ? [John 3:30]
Context would be helpful -- it always is: some Jews were questioning John the Baptizer as to why Jesus and his disciples seem to be attracting converts away from John. ["...here he (Jesus) is baptizing, and all are going to him."] In other words, "Aren't you worried, John, that this other guy is stealing your followers?"
But John isn't rattled by this at all, for he knows what his role in the Story is: "This is the assigned moment for him [Jesus] to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines." -- from The Message
John's humility is not a devaluation or deflation of his worth: It's a realization that his role in the mission is coming to an end, or at least taking a different shape.
So when worship leaders, song writers, or Christian pundists claim, "I must decrease, for he must increase" we need to ask: "Decrease in what? Grow less ... in what?"
God is not asking you to get out of his way. He's not going to walk around you so that he can go where he really wants to do, without you being in the way. He's not asking you to recoil and retreat from your true, good and noble heart. You are not a hinderance to him.
If anything, he may ask you to retreat from pride [ yet he recognizes that pride is no longer in your heart anyway. It may be lodged in your 'flesh' but not in your new heart]. Remember, it's not in our nature to be prone to wander or selfish any longer -- even Paul declares this: "It is not I, but sin living in me." [If you came down with a horrible virus, you wouldn't think you were the virus, or that the virus now defined you.]
True humility comes only when you are content with your new God-given noblility. Denying your God-crafted brilliance and splendor would be like the night's canopy of stars asking their Maker, "Please dull our light -- we would prefer to be dirtied, dingy and grey." Or a swan asking God to break its wing for fear of being too beautiful.
You can't "reflect the Lord's likeness with ever-increasing drabness." The proper thing is to shimmer.
- Related Video: "Kingdom of Nobles"