Hey friend! I'm Liz
“So the last shall be first, and the first last…”
“The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.”
And the people said AMEN because at some base level in all our lives we want to be the last one who comes in first place, first for two reasons:
1. We think we actually are coming last.
2. We desperately want to come first.
Winning has become the prize of the modern world. And many will do it at any cost. The idea that there is only one ribbon, and it must belong to me, has been the engine room of many disturbances, injustices, and wars. “Give me what I deserve.” That is until I can’t bear what I deserve.
“The last shall be first, and the first shall be last” is mentioned quite a few times in the biblical text. And I think it’s less of a positional thing, than Jesus trying to say: There is no last and first. The game your playing? Where you think there are winners and losers? Team A and Team B, those who get provided for and those who don’t? I’m not playing that game.
That’s not how the Kingdom of Heaven works. You’re not ‘in' based on merit; you belong because of your humanity. I’m stitching it all together through blood and grace and sacrifice. Like a landowner who pays everyone the same. It’s a Divine unfairness that changes everything.
“You’re not ‘in' based on merit; you belong because of your humanity…”
LIZ MILANI
Powerful, two minute reads that have helped change the script in thousands of people's lives.
Our problem is often that we think too little of ourselves, and at other times, we think too much of ourselves. We pit ourselves against others. Write up lists and reasons of why we’re deserving, or not, in comparison to others. Have you ever said to yourself: I’m doing OK because at least I’m not doing what Sally is doing? Well, that’s like the guy who got hired at 6am saying: I’m going to get paid more than what I was promised, more than that guy over there, cos I’ve worked harder.
Here’s what I know (which is very little): life is hard and beautiful and uncertain. Some days it feels like I get picked all the way down to my toes. Other days I feel like I’ve been left behind (like the scene in the original “Left Behind” movies from the 80’s where the little girl is standing all alone in the kitchen with the beaters running after her mum was raptured). And underneath it all is this incredible grace that doesn’t care one bit whether I’ve been picked or not, left behind or not, feel worthy or not, have done my best or my worst or not; regardless of it all, it whispers to me:
Come and eat; there’s a seat for you at the table.
After all, love was never fair in the first place. And I hope it never is.
Because with grace like this, everyone might get enough to eat.
Written by Liz Milani
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