Taking Last Place

Taking last place. Mothers are good at this. At least, we're supposed to be good at it.

I always thought my mom liked the boniest pieces of chicken. I always thought she preferred those. It wasn't until years later that I realized she "preferred" them because she was taking last place.

Choosing to take last place is unheard of today. We like to be the first. The best. The brightest. The wittiest. The prettiest. The hottest.

But we're not. Most of the time mothers are simply cleaning messes we don’t make. Caring for people when they are sick and needy. Meeting the needs of our children. Lying on the floor cleaning toilets. Sweeping up dirt that we didn't bring in.

Washing clothes that we do not wear. We clean throw-up, whether it is thrown up by people or animals, we clean spit-up, we wipe bottoms, we lose sleep at night with sick children, afraid children, can’t-sleep-husbands and children. We do all these things just because . . . we love our family . . . just because . . . we are called by God to do them. We certainly don't get paid to do them. And no one tells us how smart and witty we are as we take those cobwebs hostage.

It is humbling. Especially in the day in which we live when women have so many choices, when we so believe these kinds of things are beneath us, when the world has trained us to think we are such wonder women – hot mamas – smart women –

Yet God’s calling is a humbling calling.

God promises to revive the spirit of the humble. His words - Isaiah 57:15:

For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Isn’t that a great promise? When I do the most humble things, recognizing that I am not too good to do them, God revives my spirit ~ He revives my heart. God reviving, refreshing, encouraging my heart is so much better than way I so often want to revive my own heart.

My ways are usually because my pride is wounded. God knows all about the pride problem. So often we think we are better than we are, that we deserve more than we get, that we are treated oh so unfairly.

He knows all about our desire to put ourselves first, the desire to be noticed, the desire to look out for ourselves because, as we tend to think, nobody cares about all the things I do around here. He knows.

In Luke 14 Jesus tells a parable in order to teach the people about humility.

And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table; saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both shall come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.

But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

So often we just do not want to be humble. So often we just do not want to take the role of servant. So often we want the place of honor - at least every once in a while.

Yet, being a wife, a mother, a listening friend for someone who is hurting, being at home, raising children, helping with grandchildren, taking care of aging parents – all those little things that no one sees offer no immediate rewards in the eyes of the world.

Yet God notices. He remembers.

I think about God’s word a lot. I think about how His words are so different from the words of the women on the latest television programs, or the women starring in the newest movies, or the women being interviewed in latest issue of a magazine subscription.

And I am reminded, if I do what God has called me to do, if I go and recline at the last place, He will say to me at the appointed time, “Friend, move up higher.”

But taking the last place is humbling and sometimes you have to wait a long time . . .

You know, I’ve tried to live and teach the reality that humble service is noble service. And it's true that most of us spend most of our lives in humble service. We have a choice as to whether we do it unto the Lord, whether we do it from a right perspective, whether we do it out of sheer love for our Savior OR whether we just gut it out or choose not to do it at all.

But when we carry out humble service for His sake, we are most like Jesus. He spent most of His earthly life in humble service.

Cleaning messes He didn’t make, healing and touching people who were dirty and gross. In fact ~

God the Son left all the glory of heaven to become a man ~ to be an embryo in a woman’s womb ~ to go through the birthing process, to be a little child, to be brought up by two sinful parents, to be baptized by a sinful man, to be tempted in the desert by the devil himself, to go without food, to be beaten, despised, rejected, homeless, spoken against, abused, criticized unjustly ~ and then to be stripped naked, hung on a cross, dripping blood ~ and think about the fact that at any moment He could have stopped it all.

Yet He didn’t stop it all. He didn’t stop it because of the joy set before Him – you and me – Hia death and then His triumph over death – was the only way you and I could be brought into a right relationship with Him.

When I think about that ~ how can I demand the place of honor that belongs to Him alone?

I think I’d rather take the last place. At least in my humble moments.

I love Micah 6:8 ~ He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

I love Isaiah 57:15 ~ For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."

I love James 4:10 ~ Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

And Job 5:14 ~ So that He sets on high those who are lowly, And those who mourn are lifted to safety.

And Luke 1:52 ~ He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble.

And 1 Peter 5:5 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.

Humble, quiet years of doing the next thing - the things that just must be done - are just that: humble and quiet and last. No one notices. Things like loving a husband by ironing some shirts. Loving children by sitting on the floor playing with felt, drawing on paper explaining God's goodness to a little mind who doesn't have a platform. Scrubbing a tub that has been graced with mud and dirt. Instructing a child how to properly brush his teeth. Facing trials that you never thought you'd face with a quiet strength. Praying for people who have hurt you because God wants you to, not because you want to. Reading, rocking, singing, and sometimes just sitting because a child needs you. A season of small children, small meals, small things.

A season of first things first. A season taking last place as you build into little lives. Little things like rescuing a baby duck, finding dead birds in the yard, talking about spider webs, and baby raccoons.

Reading inspiring stories. Making a baby laugh. Letting a baby cry. Sending a pouty child to be alone to work it out alone.

Teaching God’s truth to children ~ in the family, in the family of God, and sometimes to children in the neighborhood.

I want to value the small things in life. I want to value humble, simple service. I want to value living a quiet life of obedience to God in the everyday moments of life. Finding great joy in simplicity and being quiet.

Long ago, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and chose to disobey Him in what they perceived to be a small thing. Satan convinced Eve that it was no big deal to sin against God. But it was. It was the biggest deal of her life ~ even though it seemed small. Just a bite of a piece of fruit? Seemed like such a small thing.

It was big. Both she and Adam made a huge mess. But God didn’t give up on them. In fact, He set out to clean up a mess He didn’t make.

In fact, He sent His Son to take last place in the world.

His Son is Jesus . . .

Scripture tells me ~ although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus took last place . . . but God wasn't done . . .

Therefore God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.