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Rising to the Top

Our jobs, school, family, life . . . everything around seems to demand improvement, promotion for security, rising to the top of whatever we are involved in. The pressure can be intense.

In the midst of harrowing national news, death, pain, unemployment, fear, how do we surmount it all and rise to the top?

This week, I read a pertinent article by one of my favorite writers, Holley Gerth, "The Only Way Up." "Climb the ladder. Get to the top. Build a platform." These words ring in our culture and sting in our hearts. What are we to do with them? God offers another way, 'Make yourself a servant to others and I will raise you up.'

"The only entrance to God's elevator is on the ground floor, through the servant's quarters. So, we can stop striving. Stop worrying. Stop working so hard. Instead, simply serve. Wherever you are today.

"You are doing well. You are bringing joy. You are where you need to be to make a difference. And if where you are needs to change, God will do it. You do the loving. He'll do the lifting."

I believe what Holley is saying is that when we surrender our lives to a loving God, He seats us in heavenly places with Himself and establishes our coming and going. Every detail of our lives is top quality and top billing. We are positioned for success and effectiveness.

Out of the horror of a gunman incessantly shooting an unsuspecting crowd in the movie theater in Colorado this past month, came story after story of God's people at the top of their game, at the top of being a light, at the top of His plan for them at that moment.

Jarell Brooks was one of them. The newspaper wrote that Jarell was raised to fear God, respect women and make good decisions. The son of a pastor, he put his life on the line to help save a mom with a four-year-old daughter and infant son. The following Sunday, that little family was in his church and came forward during a prayer of thanksgiving.

Stephanie was another who was in the movie theater that night. As bullets sprayed the theater, she hit the floor and crawled back into her row praying: "Dear God, please help us. Let all of us get out." Once outside the theater, instead of running for her life, Stephanie Rodriguez stopped to help a man who collapsed outside the theater and lay on the pavement, screaming in pain and panic, bleeding from a bullet wound. The 17-year-old girl knelt beside him and pushed her hands on his thigh, trying to stop the rush of blood and tied her own belt around his leg. His life was spared.

A pastor of a nearby church happened to be in the area and immediately purchased bottled water and passed it out to the traumatized crowd milling around outside the theater, praying with them and offering assistance in any way he could.

Have you heard this quote? "It's always better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

As Holley said, make yourself a servant and God will raise you up. Rising to the top only matters when it's connected to His ladder.

Ellene Meece lives in Meeker, Colorado and works with her husband in their natural resource company while running her own online store, Grandma's Treasures Online.

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