Alexander, king of Macedonia.
Antiochus III, ruler of the Seleucid Empire.
Charlemagne, Emperor of Rome.
Cyrus I, founder and ruler of the Persian Empire.
Henry IV, king of France.
Ivan III, czar of Russia.
Ramesses II, pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

Who are all of these people? Every one of these men are leaders whose names has been given the suffix, "The Great." Each one of them was considered by their people (or themselves) to be so impressive that they slapped this massive adjective to the end of their name. Each one of them was considered to have stood above everyone else of their time because of the many acts of conquest, valor and, majesty that they accomplished.

Like the followers of these "Great"s, I think we often measure people with similar scales. If you have earned a lot of money, you are considered great. If you accomplish a ton of really hard things, you are considered great. If you win a bunch of competitions, you are considered great. If you win wars, you are even greater. And every time, the title "Great" goes to those who have put everyone else below them to become the best and the most powerful and to get everything the world has to offer. But this is not how Jesus ever thought about greatness.

In fact, in Mark 10:42-45, says that the measure for greatness looks vastly different. It is completely upside down. Those who are truly great are the Mother Teresa's, the George Mueller's, the A21 Campaign's of this world. Those who are truly great are the ones who give away their lives and their kingdoms to serve others. These are people who don't need to take selfies to prove that they exist. Instead, they let their lives speak for themselves, and let the others photograph it. These are the people who give their lives to serving, and realize that this life is not about them. Jesus said that the servant of all is really the greatest among us.

So I wonder about you?

In what areas of your life are you trying to be impressive to others, striving to stand above others, and to accumulate a massive list of accomplishments?

Maybe it is time to give those things away, and start a living a life that is truly great. Maybe it is time to start serving as many people as possible and see the lives, communities, and world transformed around you.

I challenge you to be truly great today. Anyone has the capacity to be great because anyone has the capacity to live for the good of others. You can can be a servant. You can be great. Be greater than you have ever been! 

I have a confession to make...

I love Christmas music. I love Christmas music all year long. Yeah, I'm one of those guys. But before
you go judging me, I just have one thing to say about it. Just as we sing songs to celebrate the Resurrection at any time of the year, I think the Incarnation of our Savior is also worth singing about at any time of the year. O Come, All Ye Faithful should be just as common as O Happy Day.

With this in mind, it was much to my delight that, as I was eating my breakfast this morning, three Christmas songs in a row came on my shuffled Spotify playlist. The normal reaction the typical person would make to this would be to instantly skip to the next track. But not me. I just sat back, and let the lyrical heralds song their carols of praise over me.

One of those songs, in particular, stood out to me. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus by Folk Angel began playing and it just took me captive (see video below). "Come, thou long expected Jesus / Born to set thy people free / From our fears and sins release us / Let us find our rest in Thee." Wow! What a powerful paragraph! As I began to listen to this song, I started to remember that the Incarnation was all about my freedom. I am free because the Creator of Everything took on skin and bones in order that he could bear my sin. He became an insignificant, fragile, and dependent little cry-ball so he could rescue all of humanity from the incredibly oppressive power of sin and death. Every time I remember this, it blows my mind!

They went on to sing, "Let every heart / Prepare Him room / And heaven and nature sing / And heaven and nature sing." At this point, I felt the conviction hammering into me. Let every heart prepare Him room... Wow! How relevant this is for my life. So many things are going on in my life that I sometimes allow my heart to be filled up with a hundred different things, and it leaves little room for Jesus. One of the most spiritual things I can do is to take almost everything off my heart's plate and prepare room for the One who deserve my all. Sometimes this looks like saying no to a lot of things, but when I begin to be satisfied with Jesus and experience the unending joy that overflows from my heart, I realize that the more room I prepared for the "long expected Jesus," the more it was worth it.

So I wonder about you. How are you preparing Jesus room? And how are you finding your rest in Him? I encourage you to make this a priority just at He made you His priority when he came as a little baby two thousand years ago so he could set you free.