We often sell ourselves short, emphasizing our weaknesses rather than our strengths. When confronted by significant challenges, whether they’re our own or someone else’s, we sometimes feel inadequate to meet those challenges and defer to other “more capable” people to deal with them for us. This can be on a small scale, such as confronting an unfair HOA rule, or a much larger scale, such as global warming. Regardless of the scope, significant effort is sometimes needed by others to convince us that we can make a difference and should step up to the challenge.

This was the case for John the Baptist in this week’s passage. Jesus came to the Jordan river from Galilee so he could be baptized by John, but John was reluctant to baptize him. John felt inadequate, saying he should be baptized by Jesus. Jesus had to convince John that it was proper for him to baptize Jesus, and, in fact, it was necessary to “fulfill righteousness.” Join us this week as we reflect on John’s dilemma and consider how we may be holding ourselves back from accomplishing great things for Christ.