The greatest

C.S. Lewis from “Mere Christianity”

“How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say that they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God they theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is they pay a penny worth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound’s worth of pride towards their fellow-men. I suppose it of those people Christ was thinking when when He said that some would preach about him and cast devils out in his name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them. And any of us may at any moment may be in this death-trap. Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel good-above all, that we are better than someone else- I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.”

Luke 22

“Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.”
Luke 22:24-27 – NLT

Following Jesus is upside down from any other system ever created. Leaders are servants. The greatest, Jesus, laid down his life for us all. He is our example.

When I see myself in that light, there is much room for improvement. I am not to become my best me, I am to become more like him.