Daily Lesson for June 25, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 22 verses 24 through 26:

24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 And he said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves."

Last week I took the whole family to a denomination meeting in Dallas.  My boys, 4 and 2, were all excited to go to Dallas, except that they neither one quite get prepositions.  They kept confusing "to Dallas" as the level "2 Dallas".  From what I could make of it, there were numerous levels which each corresponded to the various floor levels in the hotel we were to stay at.  For our oldest son, there was 2 Dallas -- where mom and dad were going. Then there was 3 Dallas where his brother was headed. Then there was 4 Dallas where his sister would be staying.  And finally, there was 5 Dallas, where guess what, he would be penthousing it. This was all very cute in a four year old.

It's less cute in adults.

At some point, we come to the realization that life is not all about rising to the top floor.  No matter how many steps we might climb and how many flights we might conquer, the wise realize life is not really about ascending to the penthouse.  In fact, Jesus himself said true life is about descending -- what Henri Nouwen called "downward mobility".

A good practice for today would be to go down a floor.  If you're at 5 Dallas, what would it mean to take the elevator down to 4?

And may we remember that the greatest among us is really the one who goes down and not up the most levels, and that no one can outdo the greatest among us went all the way from the great penthouse 7 heavens to level 0 earth.