John the Baptist...talk about a guy that everyone knows of today, at least everyone who has been around the Christian church at least a little, and someone who we might say is a little like the guy holding up a sign about Jesus on the street corner in his own time.  I mean, John was offensive to many, he sounds like he would be a little quirky and strange, and he was a very unique character in the story of Jesus.

In thinking about John the Baptist, I guess I am realizing that the story that God told, the events and the episodes, the people He used...not all of it makes sense to me even now, let alone then, because it is rare that things are more clear in the moment rather than in hindsight.  Yet, when I look at the story God has been weaving and telling across the nearly 1500 years that the Bible spans, and the 2000 years since Jesus, there are some clearly seen themes and plot lines.  It humbles me to think about this...to think how many people have played an important part in the story, and to think about the different types of people that played those parts, and to realize that most of the people were just ordinary people answering and extraordinary call from God.  It reminds me of something I am sure I have said in my journaling a thousand times, and that I remind myself often, that I heard from a pastor named Andy Stanley years ago, that you never know what hangs in the balance as it relates to your faithfulness to God.  I will never know how impactful my faithfulness might be in someone else’s life.  You will never know about that person that came to faith because he saw the way you acted, or something you did, in the right moment, at the right place, that caused them to pause and think, and eventually accept Jesus into their life.  We will never know.  And, we all have a part to play; God’s story includes all who are willing to go where He leads.  Tomorrow we will read about Jesus calling the first disciples and they didn’t know either. And, you know, perhaps the guy on the side of the road that I judge every time I see him, perhaps that guy really is answering a calling that God has issued to him.  Who am I to say otherwise?