How would you like to go from being last to being first?

For Christians that is kind of a tricky question because Jesus messes with our minds on this subject. We know that Jesus said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last.” (Mark 9:35). So before we answer the first and last question, we need to know: are you talking about going from last to first in the sense that since I am last, I will be first? Or are you saying that if I say I want to be first, then that will make me last? Are we talking about a hard and fast first here? Is this a legit first? Well, stop overthinking it would ya? Christians, sheesh! It is a simple question: How would you like to go from being last to being first?

Last week Samoa went from being last to first by skipping Friday. For Samoans, Friday December 30th never happened. They went to sleep on Thursday evening and woke up on Saturday morning—all without the aid of Frat party!

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Christmas concerts. What would Christmas be without them? You can take the grinchiest-cold-hearted, anti-Christmas commando and put him or her in the audience of a Sunday School Christmas pageant and their hearts will melt. Guaranteed!

Last Sunday we had our Sunday School Concert. It was called “the Great Christmas Giveaway” and it was truly excellent and full of many wonderful and surprisingly good performances. The story involve some students shopping at a mall for their teachers’ Christmas present and how, through their interaction with some of the store owners in the mall, they learn the true meaning of Christmas. Wouldn’t you just love that to be true? What would it be like if shopping in the mall, and interacting with sales staff ended up being a spiritual experience that pointed us to the truth of Christ? It’s a bit hard to believe such a
thing would happen, isn’t it?

Well, I don’t think so because shopping in the mall is always a spiritual experience for me, because throughout the process, I spend a lot of time in repentance for the thoughts I am having about the crowds and the line ups and the store owners. Then I am always deeply in prayer so that I can find my car in the parking lot! I need my own personal Christmas Star to lead me to my car. Do you have any idea how many tan Honda Accords there are in any given parking lot? I seem to have digressed, let’s get back to the Christmas Concert.

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One of the problems with being a preacher is that you are always in evaluation mode. This is particularly true when you visit other churches while on holiday!

What is the worship like? Are there songs to take back home? What was the greeting like? Are they friendly enough? Are they welcoming enough? How comfortable am I in this particularly church culture? How weird do I feel? That last question isn’t my everyday general open-ended question that always seems appropriate to me. This is more of a ‘How weird does being here make me feel?’ question.

Then there is the preaching. Just as doctors make the worst patients, preachers make the worst preachees. We often get wrapped up more in critiquing than in listening to God’s speaking. Though, I have to say that I think I am better than many of my preacher friends in this regard—at least that’s my critique.

Still, to be honest with you, I generally wrestle between the worlds of critique and speak. Sometimes an illustration or the freshness of a preacher’s approach has me admiring their preaching chops. Either that or I start to think of how I would have handled that passage differently. When that happens I mentally shake myself and try to turn that part of my brain off and I pray, “Lord, don’t let me stand outside looking in on this sermon. I want to experience it. I want to be challenged, convicted, and encouraged by you through it. I don’t want to be a ‘professional’—help me be a pilgrim!”

Well, a few weeks ago, while we were in Cleveland, we had a hard time finding a church. I couldn’t find any of the churches we were looking for online, so I just decided to let God guild us through the divine hand of Jeeves, our trusty GPS with a British accent.

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