Ok, so I’m sitting in Starbucks over in Grapevine today – working on Sunday’s message – enjoying a venti iced skinny vanilla latte  (notice the skinny) and there are three  businessmen having a fairly loud discussion a couple tables over from me.  I noticed them because of their volume and quickly noted they were very well dressed (expensive looking suits/ties/suspenders/shoes/the works).  I happened to be looking their direction when they left and the way they left surprised me; they left all their trash, cups and napkins on the table.   As they left Starbucks, they walked right by two trash containers so it wouldn’t have taken them any extra time to trash their trash.  Maybe they are very important people – or at least think they are – and doing something as simple as throwing away their trash is a task for those not quite so great.

After they left – I noticed something else.  A fairly plain looking young girl (not a starbucks employee) finished fixing her coffee – came to the tables where they had been – kept talking on her cellphone and cleaned off all their trash.  It took her all of about 30 seconds tops to gather their trash and throw it away.  Then she sat down at a table near the place they’d been – continued talking on the phone and drinking her coffee.

What a contrast.   I’m sure if they were in a greatness lineup in most places, those businessmen would probably be chosen over her.  She wouldn’t be noticed by most people – but I think she’d be noticed by the One who created all of them.  The “One” who created them had some interesting words for His closest followers when they got into an argument about greatness — well, read it for yourself:   ²⁴The apostles got into an argument about which one of them was the greatest. ²⁵So Jesus told them: Foreign kings order their people around, and powerful rulers call themselves everyone’s friends. ²⁶But don’t be like them. The most important one of you should be like the least important, and your leader should be like a servant. ²⁷Who do people think is the greatest, a person who is served or one who serves? Isn’t it the one who is served? But I have been with you as a servant.   (Luke 22:24-27).