You want to be the best, don’t you? Why else would you work to get ahead in life?

There’s always a higher goal to reach. There is always more money to be made, more followers to be had, and bigger ladders to climb. There is always someone telling you how to become the best version of yourself or how to take a shortcut to greatness.

How to be the best

So you want to be the best? You want to come in first before all your peers?
For followers of Jesus, there’s a different path to greatness. 

Jesus takes the ladder of greatness we’re all climbing and turns it on its head. In Mark 9, when Jesus hears his disciples arguing about who is the greatest (though they’re actually too embarrassed to admit it), he lets them—and us—in on the secret to being the best:

“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

Hang on a second.
Aren’t we talking about being the best?
Last time I checked, the top executives weren’t the ones scrubbing the toilets.

That’s true. The ones at the top don’t generally serve. At least not in the business world. But Jesus speaks a different language than the dialect of our world.

Want to be first? Then be last.
Want to be the best? Start serving.

Because the one who is best in God’s kingdom is the one who gives up everything for others. The one who’s great in God’s eyes is the one who’s a servant in the eyes of others. (example: Jesus)

Here are two awesome, encouraging facts about serving:

1. I can serve anyone.
I don’t need to be around a certain people group in order to serve them. I don’t need to buy a plane ticket to serve. I can serve the people right next to me. My husband and my kids. A stranger or a church member. A parent, a co-worker, even an enemy. In fact, if I’m not willing to serve those closest to me but want to serve those far away, I probably don’t have a servant’s heart but a desire to travel.

(Related: True Love Serves)

2. Anyone can serve.
It’s like in Ratatouille, “Anyone can cook!” Only for real, anyone can serve and they might not even have to wash their hands to do it, whereas in cooking it’s pretty imperative that you wash up first.

Service is not limited to someone with special talents, a great personality, a higher education, or an unlimited budget. 

You say, “But I’m a stay at home Mom and I’m chained to my home 24/7 with a million underage citizens!”
Guess what? You can serve those underaged citizens in Jesus’ name.

You say, “But I have a physical condition which makes it impossible to do any type of manual labor!”
Guess what? You can serve people with kind words that build up instead of tearing down.

I don’t have to be or possess anything special to serve.
All I need to have is a heart that’s humble.
All I need to be is someone who looks for approval from Jesus instead of others.

So I guess the question is: Whose opinion matters most?

Do I want others to think I’m the best?
If so, I’ll seek to set myself above everyone else. The one with all the answers. The one who is above serving little people.

Do I want to please Jesus?
If so, I’ll serve those around me in Jesus’ name.

“If anyone would be first,
he must be last of all and servant of all.”