John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” – John 1:23

Being lost can be caused by a lack of clarity in matters of direction. We are lost when we don’t know where we are or where we’re going. When this happens, we become like driftwood, condemned to aimless living. John the Baptist lived a short but fruitful life because he was not lost. He was very clear about his job (to prepare the way for the Lord) and why he was doing it (for the Lord) (John 1:19-26).

Because of his clarity regarding these two critical issues of his life, John was able to focus his energy and skill on the things that mattered most. Knowing that his job was to prepare the way, he preached a message of repentance and called people to be baptized. He insisted on righteous living because that was consistent with what he was supposed to do. He did not feel threatened when people started leaving him to hear Jesus speak. His clarity about the task at hand gave him an aura of integrity in his preaching and made the boundaries of what he could accomplish obvious to him.

It helped that he also knew that what he did had great value because it served the highest purpose possible: for the Lord. In a world where people have become like rats chasing after the cheese of prosperity and wealth, it is good to be reminded that there is a more fulfilling reason for doing what we do. We can serve God. God is big enough to lose ourselves in, and while John did lose his head in the service of God, we can be certain that he had no regrets.

Knowing what we are doing and why we are doing it is essential in our lives. Such clarity of life magnifies life’s meaning, especially in our time when work has taken on a contractual aspect where we can resign or be asked to leave in unfavorable circumstances. Such clarity of meaning fosters a high level of commitment and conviction. Excellence and productivity come closely after that. Gordon Smith in his book, Courage and Calling referred to this as congruence between our vocation in life (which is what the Lord has called us as persons to do) and the work or career to which we are presently involved with. Knowing what we have been called to do and doing it with gusto produce miracles.

This is a good reminder for us at Inter-Varsity as individual workers and as a movement. While we have a longing for change in the way we see and do things, we need to reflect on the possibility that what we need may be a greater consistency towards what our job is and why we are doing it. When we are clear about these two, we will be liberated from concerns and issues that may be important but are outside the scope of our job. And we will not be anxious about whether we have increased in numbers or expanded our operations as long as we can honestly say that the way we did our job has magnified the Lord.

Gary Celis