If you’re not first you’re last…

There’s a great lie at work in my head and heart that’s been implanted in me from as early as I can remember.  The purpose of this lie is get into the core of who we as individuals are and how we think.  It’s designed to distract a person from finding true joy and a life fully lived.

And the worst part is………. this is not a lie that’s individual to me; but it’s actually infectious like the flu.  It’s spread rampant throughout all areas of the earth.  And I’ve believed it and been infected by it for so long.

This lie is not so much like a sickness that you contract, suffer through the symptoms, and then you heal and are done with it.  It hangs on like a cough long after you’re up and moving again.

I continue to struggle to make sense of what is real, and what is not.

I’m not alone in this.

The lie is that we need to have nice things to be happy and secure.  That with our own house we can design our own habitat where happiness and joy are always found.  That if we have enough money coming in to save for retirement we can consider ourselves successful.  That if we have things to leave with our children after we’re dead and gone we’ve lived a good life.  That if we’re well-known and respected in the community we will somehow be better off than if we aren’t.  That somehow with this, or that, or her, or him, we’ll be better off.

There is a principle Jesus spoke about in regards to this, which actually involves another principle within it.  “The last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16).    He speaks about it in two instances as recorded in Matthew.  The first is with the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-30) and then again in chapter 20 in a parable with the workers in the vineyard.  Many of us are familiar with the first – the rich man asks Jesus what good thing he needs to do in order to get eternal life and Jesus replies that he needs to obey the commandments.  The man says that he already does obey them – to which Jesus replies that if he wants to be “perfect” he should sell all his possessions and give it to the poor and then follow him.  The man walks away sad because he was wealthy.  Jesus then says it’s actually easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  The disciples who saw this happen came back to Jesus and said it’s got to then be impossible for ANYONE to be saved.  Jesus replies that with man it IS impossible, but with God all things are possible (alluding to salvation coming through himself – Jesus; but He had only mentioned the concept of what would happen at his death once before…they were still new to what was going to occur).  He goes on to say everyone who’s left family/people/stuff for His sake will inherit eternal life and receive much more AND that “many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first”.

“Many” (notice he says not “all”…that’s discussion for another day) of those who are ahead in life are actually farther behind in finding true life.  True life being Kingdom life.

Right after this occurs Jesus talks about the parable of the workers in the vineyard.  He says the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.  Those who were hired early in the day, and worked for the agreed wages, received just as much as those who were hired at both the middle and  the end of the day as he kept going out to get more people to work.  The landowner was still in the right as he responds to his workers saying “don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous”  Jesus ends by saying likewise “so the last will be first and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16).

It appears we have a choice – we can work, toil, gain things and subsequently make things harder on ourselves and our pursuit of the kingdom (“life”)……OR we can be satisfied with less knowing that we don’t have the same burdens as others and we are actually moving forward being in a position of being farther behind.  And I should mention that “being farther behind” is most likely a relative state for each of us individually (ie it’s different for every person).

Now…to throw another log on the fire (that other principle I mentioned) – consider Matthew 19:13-15.  “Then the little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.  But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.  Jesus said, ‘let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’ “.

What does it mean to be like a child….to be one “such as these”?

Think about the characteristics of a child…are they in a position of being first or last?

With whom did Jesus spend his time with?  Was it the “first” in society or were they the sinners, tax-collectors, and leppers?

To whom did the angel appear and announce the birth of Jesus? (Sheppard’s were as low as you could get next to leppers)

Where was Jesus born?  Someplace secure and warm or was it out in the barn?

Who was Jesus born to?  A no-name person in an obscure country where supposedly no good things came?

It would appear there is a pattern here.

SO – the question to ask myself is what’s more important to me?  Life in fullness in pursuit of the kingdom or the worry and fear associated with not being as secure as my head tells me I need to be (or the pursuit of that security).  What do I spend my time worried with and why?

All that said, the reality is that having stuff isn’t bad.  Wealth isn’t bad.  The pursuit of a way of life isn’t bad.  The difference is what’s DRIVING you?!?!?!  How attached are you to it?  Where is your focus and how do your actions in daily life reflect where your heart is?  Do you consciously make decisions that bring life every day?

OR do you just continue believing an infectious lie and ignoring the principles that are designed to bring true and everlasting joy?

The real stuff.

 

 

 

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~ by pauliej123 on January 1, 2011.