least

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, you often used children to teach us truths about life and leadership.  Help us to know what it means to receive the little children.  Help us to fully understand how we must become like little children in order to be more fully like you.  Help us to stop trying so hard to become, and aspire to become least instead.  Make us more like you.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 9:46-48

Journal: How are you trying to be awesome these days?  For whom?  What would it look like to shift toward making yourself least?  How will you do that today?

Reflection: I spend way too much time and energy trying to be awesome, when what Jesus really wants from me is to make myself least.  That is because he knows that, as odd as it sounds, becoming least is the pathway to life and freedom.  Becoming least is a beautiful thing because it sets us free from the need to be awesome.  When we finally stop trying so hard to become great, we can finally become all that God desires us to be, all that he created us to be.  There is no pressure to be anything other than our beautiful, God-breathed selves.  And, thus, there is the freedom to stop taking up all of the space.

     Good leaders know this all too well.  The best leaders never take up all of the space, they actually make space for God, and then for others, in a way brings about life and love and genuine community.  True leadership—which is exactly what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples—is about equipping, empowering, and enabling, not doing it all ourselves.  It calls those around us to become the very best version of themselves.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Give me the courage today, Lord Jesus, to make myself least, that you would be made great.  Amen.