“There Grrrrrreat!” says Tony the Tiger.  Corn Flakes – the anytime food.  They are just as good at 7:00 am as 11:00 pm.  Many of us grew up with Tony  an Kellogg’s Corn Flakes for breakfast.  I love them just as much today as when I was 6 years old.What makes a person Grrrrreat? 

Greatness is something everyone wants even if they deny it through their false humility.  We might say things like “I don’t want to be recognized” or “I don’t need any thanks or appreciation” while we get mad and resentful when others receive the thanks for the things they have done.  As Christians, we think it wrong to admit the secret longing of our heart.  We want to be great.  The bible does not condemn greatness.  It defines it for us.  God desires for us to be great and He tells us how.

There is an interesting story in Mark 10:32-45.  It tells of the disciples walking along the road with Jesus.  They are discussing among themselves who was the greatest.  James and John had the idea that they were deserved the seat of greatness.  We all have ideas of greatness.  We spend alot of our life working toward some goal of greatness – the things we think we are destined to be, do and become.  We become frustrated when it’s not working out the way we think it should.  If you are spiritual you will blame the devil and begin to pray against what you think is the obstacle holding you back from some great thing you have in mind. In Verse 43 Jesus says “whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant.”  We become frustrated when we are not arriving at the perceived destination of greatness, when greatness is not a destination.  Jesus says if we want to be great we must be servants.

Our thought is that serving leads us to greatness, as if serving is the stepping stone to arrive at greater things.  This has to be the farthest from our minds.  If this is our thinking, then we may serve but never be servants.  To the true servant of Christ, his goal is to be at the disposal of his Savior.  Paul says it this way in II Corinthians 4:5 “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.”Serving is not the path to greatness, it is greatness. 

If we want to be great then we need to do what God puts before us as if it were the greatest thing we could do to serve Him and others.  If we don’t, we will not be happy serving because we will be looking for something we think is greater.  This is however of the flesh.  This is deciding for ourselves what we think is great.  We must not promote ourselves or our idea of greatness and do whatever God gives us as if it is the only and greatest work.  If you want to be grrrrreat then serve others for Jesus’ sake.  Don’t look past serving for greatness – Greatness is serving.

What opportunities have been available to you that you have been resisting because you think you are meant for more or it may be beneath you?  How can you serve others right now?  What have you been asked to do lately?  God may be speaking to you and calling you to greatness and you may have been looking right past it.  Serve, and do it as unto the Lord, not unto man.  Do it with all your heart.  Be grrrrreat in His name!