Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:4) The disciples asked Jesus, “who will be the greatest in heaven?” However that question stemmed from pride and hubris. You and I would have asked the same question with the same pride and hubris, so don’t think you are above the question. In fact, I think it is a legitimate question. How else, in this age of comparisons, could you determine your worth and value? Jesus turns around and says to be like a child and you will be great. There are two implications I can think of that Jesus’ statement has immediately. The first implication is that children can’t be anybody or anything else other than themselves, and will therefore be the “greatest” that they can be of themselves. I’m going to explain that in a little bit. The second implication is that children wouldn’t compare themselves with others about who is the greatest; rather, a child would feel like the greatest because they receive love like they they are the greatest from the greatest. The first implication of being the greatest version of yourself that you can possibly be comes with a lot of heavy weight. It is something most people struggle with, even to the point of depression. If you don’t believe me that it is such a big problem, just walk into a bookstore, or log into Amazon.com and check out how big the self-help section is in comparison to other sections. Or just look on the Times bestseller list and see how many are self-help– like you need help being yourself!!! This is the implication of Jesus’ statement though: you must be humble enough to be you. We’re so prideful and full of shame that we are all longing to be somebody we’re not– this is definitely not childlike. We cannot be somebody else, we weren’t created to be somebody else. If you want to be the greatest, then you have to be who God created you to be and humble yourself to know how you are built and made and live into it. When you live into who God created to be, you become the greatest in the eyes of God. The second implication about comparisons is related to knowing who you are in God. If you keep comparing yourself to who God created you not to be like,then you will never be great because you’re not never going to be greater than the person you’re trying to become. Stop comparing who the greatest person you are pretending to be. Rather, what you need to do is know how the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven– the king loves you the greatest when you are you and for you. If you think about these two implications today, you may recognize within yourself, areas where you have been dishonest and/or hiding. Ask yourself: is that childlike? is that humble? Better yet, you may want to ask yourself about those areas you have been dishonest and/or hiding: how is God going to use those areas, what’s in store for me through Christ in those areas? You may be surprised by what you learn.