The First Shall Be Last

Going to Seminary is an obvious step towards our calling. Being part of God’s harvest and furthering His Kingdom on earth is such a privilege to be part of and the workers are few. Going to Seminary is a unique calling on one’s life.

We leave in two months to move to Seminary and in the meantime we have been trying to prepare as much as we can. Financially, as a family of five, we have been trying to find ways to earn income from home. Some ways have been successful and some have not and in the midst of it all, I find myself trying to make something of myself. I have been trying hard to become a good writer, blogger, hand crafter, speaker, and health educator etc. In the middle of trying to improve my gifting’s and passions and take responsibility with the things God has called me to do, there is this striving to “be” something great and to do great things for God. Whirling around me are the ministries of others. The creative ideas of others and my wondering of how do I keep up with mainstream? How do I become important so that we can be successful?

The Lord stopped me the other day and reminded me of his upside down Kingdom. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. As ministers of the Kingdom of God, our job is not to rise up our ministry but to rise up others. We are already important. We are God’s children and there is no calling that can make us more or less important in his eyes. My children are important to me because they are mine. The same goes for us and God. Our identity is in the fact that we are part of His family and not because we are going away to do some Great thing for Him.

As we move forward with our callings and making best use of the talents that God has given to us, I pray that He reminds me daily to humble myself before the Lord. Before every work day or day of ministry I want to remind myself of two things.

1. I am already important to God

My success and failures do not make me more or less important to God.

2. My goal is not to rise up my ministry, but to rise up others BY my ministry

So as we head off to Seminary where my husband will attain a Master’s degree, I am reminded that the first shall be last – we are going to Seminary in the posture of a Servant, in the dirt, washing the feet of others. The goal is not fanfare or title but for the Love of God to shine in all we do and say.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 3: 1-3