How Low Can You Go?

Maybe this is unseemly, and I apologize if it is. But I want to tell you the benefit and blessing of going lower. I am a man who has to be lower not higher. I am called to serve a woman, and I surrender to support her life – a life that uplifts Christ. Many have said to me, “Oh John, someday you will be promoted and set free.” But my greatness lies in going lower. How low can you go?

I have surrendered to the call to support, and I am endued with all the blessings and benefits of one who yields to this call.  It isn’t a burden; it is a blessing. To some this would seem foolishness.  But most are called to go lower, and I say PLEASE yield to this. It is nearest to the breast of God. It is next to His heart. It is yielded to the closest place. It is the position with Christ below, not above.

How I would impart this as a gift, if I could, to all those who resist it as a devaluation of their worth. I can’t encourage you enough to take the highest call.  Christ Himself went lower, so our highest position is lower!  Man plays king of the mountain. “Who among us can remain highest?” But what entreats the Most High is lowness. What stirs His passions is lowness. Oh it makes Him burn and yearn. He is excited over those who will take the lowest place.

We are the lowest of high creatures. When we will take the place of low, we will be raised up on high. This isn’t false humility because true lowness never envisions the heights. This is a bowed, yielded vessel, surrendering to its due course. This is my place and home.

Now I am not saying that God Most High doesn’t position some in elevated positions. No, clearly He does. I am speaking to the low, the common, the majority – we who are beneath. If you are high and lifted up, I pray for you grace. You will need it!  But I’m not addressing you. I’m talking to those who have been positioned to yield and serve, not high but low.  This is a blessed place!  This is the fast track to elevation. And if you’re with me on this, it’s probably because you don’t care about the heights.

During a flight back from Europe, I had my hand resting up as my elbow sat on my armrest. As our flight attendant passed by, she sweetly grabbed my hand and bent down to say, “Thank you, you have been so delightful.” Then she just went on down the aisle, about her work. She was an older lady who had probably been an attendant for years.  Maybe the economy made her retirement impossible, or maybe she just liked to work.  Either way, she picked up on a characteristic within each of us in our party.

The low knows their own and the yielded ones are celebrated and hailed. Look into the eyes of your flight attendant or the server at the restaurant. Do they speak to YOU? Can they identify with you? Do they praise you?  It is to these I speak. My expressed joy is that this lowly crew rides a wave so much higher in the afterlife, and in this life be the unburdened soul, free from being king of the mountain. I am not writing about the regular servant, but the ones who do it just for God!

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.
Philippians 2:5-9

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
James 4:10