Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article The skinny of it Tuesday, February 27, 2001 Mark 10:28-31 Jesus says, "Many who are first will be last, and the last first." I've never been to New Orleans. Watching Ken Burns' jazz history on PBS this January, I wanted to be there. Late at night, listening to sweet saxophone and trumpet music floating over the Mississippi, remembering with the eternal part of me the sounds and smells of dark nights in spring. A port city filled with men and women, black and white, slave and free, African, French, English, first and last. Without the trappings of wealth or poverty, there's no way to know the difference between first and last. Naked we arrive here in this world; naked we'll leave. Fancy casket stays at home with the bones, while we travel on. As I think about what I might "sacrifice" for Lent, I realize that what God really wants is that I get this, that I'm not first. I don't have to take care of myself first, think of myself first; and when I stop, he'll fill me up. Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart"... Micah 6:6,8 "With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?... He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." There are more merciful things that I can do than let others go before me in the grocery store line, but I have to start somewhere... I'm getting a little closer to deciding on what I'll sacrifice for Lent. Lord, I am in too much of a hurry to get to the front of the line, the top of the class, the end of the road. What am I looking for anyway? You're already here, why am I going there? Thank you for slowing me down and loving me at your speed. "; Add      Edit    Delete