//Listening to Cool Kids, by Echosmith//

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve weighed myself in the balance, only to find I was wanting. I’ve had the opportunity to be around so many amazingly talented people in my life – hilarious in their wit, proficient in their gift. I’ve been around singers, storytellers, and stuntmen. In this digital age, all of us have a chance to witness things that were previously unimaginable. This seems like a double-edged sword of exposure because we can either stand in awe and appreciation of all the beauty that surrounds us or we can feel so small in comparison that we wonder if what we’re bringing to the table has any value at all.

So I bet it ruffled more than a few feathers when Jesus told them the greatest in the kingdom of God would be the Servant of All. Because no one wants to fight for the low seat in the house.

I think we forget

that’s frequently

where God chooses to sit.

But then again, perhaps someone who serves isn’t even at the table. Aren’t they the ones bringing in food? Making sure everyone else has what they need? Standing at the ready with a pitcher in hand, pouring out to quench thirst, making sure no glass remains empty, no plate bare, as long as an appetite remains? Scanning the table to make sure everyone has what they need- isn’t that a servant’s role?

We think the high seats at Heaven’s table have been reserved for the most accomplished, but I imagine we may be surprised one day to approach the table and find that people who spent their entire lives in an uncooperative body may be sitting upright next to Jesus. It’s possible that the people who were completely unable to speak in this life will finally be able to laugh freely and become fully articulate (for the first time) beside the One who created them. That’s such a beautiful thought that I can’t imagine any of us begrudging them that spot at the table.

As much as we jockey and vie for position in this life, it’s just a ridiculous game. We are all nitwits in comparison to the genius of God. I mean, anyone who has the mental capacity to design over 400,000 types of flowering plant species in the world has got to be pretty intelligent, right? We celebrate a man who spent thousands of tries to create a lightbulb until he finally succeeded and yet overlook the fact that God created the stars, flung them into the void and called them by name on the first try. Who is more intelligent? It has taken scientists and inquiring minds a few thousand years to fully understand and map out all the complex realities of life that God seemed to throw together within the span of one week. God is absolutely, undeniably brilliant.

Compared to God, we are kids. All of us. We’re like 5-year-olds running around with business suits and cell phones, brokering deals, accumulating toys, fussing and comparing as we line up our belongings to see who has the most so we can re-assign worth based on what we perceive to be valuable. The thing is, our net worth at the grave will be the same as every other person who rests there: $0.

We are just kids in God’s house. There’s no competition for who’s the smartest or the best or the brightest because there’s only one person – only one being in existence – who surpasses every other being in every area possible, and that is God. He’s the greatest.

And when we let him be the greatest, when we acknowledge that fact – the pressure is gone. We stop competing and comparing and rest in the knowledge that we do fit in. As Christians, we’re all sharing space in the same house. We realize that

it’s not who we are,

but whose we are

that gives us freedom to just be

what we are.

Children of God.

Originally posted August 12, 2022