On His Right

Three weeks ago I attended a high school commencement of a former student. The commencement exercises were held at the Colorado Convention Center to accomodate the 200+ graduates and their family and friends. I took the light rail downtown, got off at my stop and found the graduate's family.

The commencement speeches, honors, and remarks were somewhat interesting, but I've been to other graduations so there was nothing highly unusual.

Then came the time to hand out diplomas. Student after student went up on the platform to receive their diploma and congratulations from the assembled dignitaries. About the only excitement was one young man who fell down the stairs after receiving his diploma. But he immediately sprang back up and raised his hands in triumph--he had survived both high school and his fall!

I thought they were finished (I was having trouble following all the names being read) when students began to appear from off the side of the stage. But these weren't simply regular students, they were special students. There was a boy who was autistic, there were two young ladies in wheelchairs, there was a young man who was blind, and there were others who were deaf.

As I watched these young people go across the stage to accept their diplomas something began to dawn on me. All the applause and hooting and hollering that had been done for previous students could not hold a candle to the ovations these special young people were receiving. In a culture that far too often only gives recognition to the best, the brightest, and the most beautiful, my heart was truly touched by the outpouring of support given to these special students by their families, their friends, and their classmates.

On my way home on the light rail I sat across from a teacher who went to that school every day to help a deaf young man with his studies. That young man was now headed to a very prestigious school in New York to study animation.

As I reflected on this experience I thought of Jesus' words in Matthew 25 to those who He welcomes into His kingdom for the kindnesses they did to those in need, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

How often is my ministry motivated simply by meeting a need rather than what political points can be gained by being nice to the correct people? How often is my ministry done in obscurity instead of where people will take notice? How often do I minister to those who cannot possibly do anything for me in return as opposed to doing ministry in hopes that they will do something for me in return?

Jesus puts it very simply in Matthew 25: We will either be found "left" out, or we will be found having done the "right" thing for the "right" reasons. Let's live to be on His right.

Misplaced Priorities

In early April I had to fly out of town for a day to make a presentation. Rather than parking my Jeep Cherokee in the infamously expensive Denver International Airport's parking lots, I chose an off-site lot that is less expensive and has a shuttle to take its customers to the airport.

One of the features of this particular lot is that for a slightly more expensive rate you can park your vehicle under covered parking to avoid the nasty hailstorms that sometimes strike Denver. Again, being the frugal (read: "cheapskate") person I am, I opted to leave my '98 Jeep in the uncovered portion of the lot. It's not that I don't value my Jeep, it's just that it's not that valuable or nice to warrant that type of special protection.

I made my presentation, flew back into DIA, caught the shuttle back to the lot along with about 15 of my closest friends (OK, they were total strangers), and then began the trip through the lot to locate everyone's vehicle.

Again, being the frugal (read: "cheapskate) person I am, I had never ventured to the covered portion of the lot. I suspected that vehicles parked there would be luxury SUV's, sports cars, etc. Sure enough, one of the shuttle passengers had a vehicle under covered parking, and I got to see just how the other half lives. As I guessed we pulled up to a beautiful, new SUV. If I owned a car like that, I suppose I would park it there too. As we continued under the covered parking, my suspicions were confirmed: new, luxury SUV's, expensive sports cars, top-of-the-line vehicles were parked everywhere.

Then I spotted it. There under covered parking, was a broken-down, rusted-out Toyota pickup. My Jeep is nothing special, but this pickup made my Jeep look like a truly expensive vehicle. I couldn't believe that someone would pay a higher price to park a truck like that in covered parking.

That pickup truck makes me think about misplaced priorities. For the pickup owner, it would appear that his/her priorities were somewhat misplaced. But truth be told, don't all of us have certain misplaced priorities--things we think are of absolute importance to us, but in the end aren't really as significant as we like to think. Some of those misplaced priorities may show nothing more than a silliness on our part to imagine that these things were so crucial to us. But some of our misplaced priorities, at their worst, may cause an eternal downfall for us.

Listen to this brief story recorded in Luke 12.

"The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

A critical case of misplaced priorities. For some its possessions, for others power, for others position, for others it's pleasure. All perhaps good things in their proper place, but if they take the place of God, then what?

Elsewhere in Luke, Jesus asks this searching question: "What good will it be if you gain the whole world, but lose your soul?"

Good question. Do you have your priorities straight? Have you made the pursuit of a relationship with Jesus Christ the number one thing in your life? Or are you figuratively parking a jalopy in covered parking while leaving something far more important without the attention it deserves?

Let's not get caught off-guard by misplaced priorities.