Share the Love: Give Up Your Place in Line

If you're standing in a checkout line and the person behind you obviously has fewer items or is obviously in a big hurry, invite them to go ahead of you. You can't always take the extra time to do this, but when you can it might make a huge difference in someone else's day.

It might also serve to remind you that to be "first" in the Kingdom of Heaven requires being last in the earthly kingdoms in which we participate...whether they consist of who gets to leave the store with her groceries first or who gets the place of honor at a corporate conference or who takes on the unsavory tasks at the local community center.

Upon arrival into Capernaum, Jesus overheard some of His disciples having what might be called a "domestic squabble" over this very issue of entitlement and authority. Jesus addressed the issue head-on by telling all of His disciples, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35b).

To take the lesson to an even deeper level, Jesus then called a little child over and had him stand in their midst. "Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me'" (9:36).

Children are wonderful. We all start out as children. The children to whom we extend respect and consideration will someday become the leaders upon whom we depend. But our kindness to a child today is not simply a way to guarantee our own future, but to also invest in that child's understanding so that he or she may extend his or her own respect and consideration one day to the next generation.

The paradigm of the Kingdom of God is a dichotomy wherein the long-accepted ladder to success, joy, and happiness has been turned upside-down and, as we learn to intentionally climb backwards and down, we arrive at the very place where we are serviceable to God and our fellow humanity.