The Greatest & The Least

Image Credits: https://lastapostle.me/2016/01/23/the-last-shall-be-first/

I believe to be the greatest; you have to be the least.

This is a counterintuitive thinking. If I want to be great according to the worldly kingdom, I have to be the first, at the top. Jesus teaches the opposite. To be the first, I have to be last. It’s a paradigm shift. I’d say more of abundance mentality. There is enough for everyone.

No one wants to be termed weaker, and no one wants to be a loser. We all want to be at the top. So we do all that it takes to rise to the top - even if our character is compromised.

Jesus in many instances admonishes us to be the least in order to be great, to serve in order to influence. It’s about getting my hands dirty, going the extra mile. It's not about having low self-esteem or pretending. It’s about knowing who I am and who’s I am and going out there to be who I am to be. It’s about being secure, confident and humble. It’s sometimes about losing a fight to win a war.

Being great means having an influence. If we think of great people in our lives, they are those who immensely influenced us. Parents are great people in our lives if they influenced us positively and vice versa. Think of a teacher, neighbor, mentor, friend, etc who you consider great in your life, how much of an influence did they have in your life?

Image Credits: http://www.freebibleimages.org/photos/jesus-washes-feet/

The famous most talked and copied example of humility is Jesus serving his disciples by washing their feet. This was a very symbolic act. He didn’t have to do it. He could have called on someone else to do it on his behalf or asked them to do it themselves. But he chose to wash and wipe his disciple's dusty, dirty feet. He then called upon us to do the same. He says that now that we know these things we will be blessed if we do them. Now that we know about service, we will be blessed if we serve. Now that we know how to influence someone’s life, we will be blessed if we do that.

What does Jesus mean by we will be blessed? Many of us claim that we are blessed yet we are just having our way. We are just convincing ourselves, yet God has no part in it. Since it looks nice, appealing, we enjoy it, and it's not a sin, we say God has blessed it. To check if it’s a blessing from God I ask myself the following question; "When I think of Jesus at the moment I’m claiming the blessing, do I feel an authentic sense of His love for me and a growing desire to love others.”

God is looking for those who are secure, confident and humble. Secure in who they are? Whose are they? Most of us struggle with a lot of insecurities. We go to greater length to prove ourselves since our security is not in Jesus. Our security could be on our jobs, titles, families, friends, others opinions, etc. This doesn't mean that we live a careless life. We ought to remind ourselves that Jesus loves us no matter what. It's not about what I do as much as that could be important. But it's about Jesus. It’s about who I am in Jesus and who he wants me to be.

Confident in what we can and what we can't,  confident on the love of God for us no matter what, confident in who Jesus is in our lives and what He means to us, confident of our journey with Jesus, confident in our friendship in Him. Putting our confidence on any other thing is like sinking sand.

Humble in our dealings with those around us, walking humbly with our God. A humble person is more interested in others than in themselves - someone who is about the greater good rather than their own needs, someone who recognizes that which is true. God is God, and I am not God, and that's who I am, and if He gave me a skill, He gave me a skill. If He didn't, He didn't. Humility isn't thinking less about myself but is thinking about myself less. Not a lack of self-confidence.

Image Credits: www.giantworldwide.com

Everywhere I see people who are struggling to prove themselves to everyone. In most cases I find, they are trying to cover/hide something deeper than what I am seeing. Or they are running away from something. For this reason, they can’t allow themselves to be last. I like these three questions from GiANT Worldwide tools:

        What are you afraid of losing?

        What are you trying to hide?

3       What are you trying to prove? To whom?

Reflecting on this questions will change your view if how to influence people and hence gain greatness. Will make you realize how to be secure, confident and humble. You will realize that it's ok to be last sometimes because that's where greatness lies.

If this resonates with you, seek to be secure, confident and humble so that you can influence those around you. Look for a small community of friends who you can do this together with. Being accountable to a few and practicing with a few. It’s about building a community of friends to share each other’s journey of being influential.  You have to be deeply committed to each other and desire to see each other grow in this journey. You have to create support, encouragement and accountability platform for each other. The community has to be a small as possible so that there is active engagement by all involved.

Find a community around you and see if these conversations make sense to you.

Image Credits: http://www.wca-sa.org

By Gabriel Achayo