Last Place

**Sit quietly for one minute before beginning to read.**

“If I follow the counsel of Jesus and take the last place, I won’t be shocked when others put me there too.”
                                              - Brennan Manning in The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus

    Last place. Ouch. I don’t like it and more likely than not, neither do you. First place I love, being the first in line, the winner. Those are the places that I want to take. Last place not so much. Yet that is what we are called to. Jesus calls us to last place. When I truly consider this call I come face to face with my sense of entitlement and face to face with the fact that I really do not want to follow Jesus where He wants to lead. I do not want to follow Him into last place. Yet He continually calls us into last place.
    Not only does He call us to last place, last place is a reality in life. We will be last in many ways and at many times. We will be last because someone else is better or someone else has the favor of those in charge or because of an injustice (this is true for so many in the world). We cannot always be first and honestly, that’s probably a good thing, at least for me.
    As we follow Jesus into last place we don’t mind standing there. As we follow the humility and sacrifices of Jesus we are not hurt, do not become bitter and do not demand that people treat us a certain way. Following Jesus means that we leave our sense of entitlement and take last place. Oh how difficult this is!
    How is God calling you to last place? If you went ahead and took last place how would that transform how you see others, especially when they put you in last place?

**Sit again for as long as is available to you.**