The world is currently obsessed with the shadow rather than the substance. We live in an age where the “self” has become the ultimate idol, and even those who claim to speak for the Almighty often spend more time building their own kingdoms than pointing toward the coming One. But the true herald of the King has a different cry. Like the messenger in the wilderness, the faithful soul realizes that for the Truth to be seen, the man must disappear. We must adopt the posture of a signpost on a dusty highway: weathered, functional, and entirely focused on the destination. The scripture is clear on this divine hierarchy, for as the apostle wrote, “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).
There is a dangerous temptation to become the object of our own ministry. When the world looks at a believer, they should not see a personality to be admired or a lifestyle to be envied; they should see a direction to be followed. If our lives do not terminate on the person of Jesus Christ, then we are nothing more than a stumbling block dressed in religious garb. We are commanded to walk the narrow way, yet we must walk it in such a way that those trailing behind us do not stop at our heels. “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). The moment the “follower” loses sight of Christ because the “leader” has grown too large in the frame, the mission has failed. The goal is total eclipse—that the brightness of His glory would so overwhelm our own presence that we become a mere silhouette against the dawn of His return.
True obedience is found in this holy anonymity. To walk the literal or figurative highways of this world with the message “Don’t Follow Me” is a declaration of war against the ego. It is a recognition that there is only one Good Shepherd, and any undershepherd who seeks the affection of the sheep for himself is a hireling. As we look for that blessed hope, our lives must scream of His sufficiency and our own insufficiency. We are but jars of clay. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Let the vessel be broken, let the man be forgotten, and let the Name that is above every name be the only thing the traveler remembers when they pass us by on the road.