The Greatest of These

NOTE: Revision of ‘We want to compete on the highest level.’ Published in Belton Journal 5-5-05.

The Chicago Sun-Times ran an interview with U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. last week.
He talked about U2, the botched up ticket sales and how the band is still not satisfied with just being the “biggest band in the world.”
“We want to do better, we want to compete on the highest level, and that means competing on radio, and competing with people like Britney Spears and all those pop artists who are at the top of their game. The songs that are written for them are pretty spectacular, and we want to compete with that. Why else do this? There’s no other reason. None of us need to do it, we’re all financially secure, and for a lot of bands, that’s a huge turn-off. ‘I’ve got the kids now, I’ve got the money, what do I need this for?’ This is revenge for us.”
Granted, in my opinion U2 is already the greatest band in the world.
But apparently they’re not happy yet.
In my own life there are a number of times that I get complacent and feel like I don’t need to improve.
But what if I woke up everyday with a mindset that I needed to be the greatest editor in the world, or the greatest single’s intern in the world or the son or friend or Christian? How would my life differ?
What would it take for me to be the greatest at all these things?
Scripture tells us that even the disciples wanted to be the greatest in the kingdom in heaven.
In Matthew 18 the disciple ask Jesus “Who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Jesus tells them, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
That excites me, because I can be childlike all the time.
But that’s probably more a lack of maturity than what Jesus was talking about.
My friend Mike loves to tell me about his two-year old son, Liam.
A few weeks ago Mike was eating dinner with his wife and Liam. And halfway through the meal Liam realized they hadn’t prayed.
He stopped everything, put his hands together and said, “Pray. Pray.”
That childlike faith is what Jesus was looking for. A faith that isn’t distracted from our daily duties. A faith that never questions how big God is, but knows God is bigger than any problem we have.