Sitting alone at a two-person table in Starbucks

I’m finding that busy schedules and long to-do lists are this generations new CRACK. How are you? “Stressed.” What’s new? “Same old, just super busy.” We’re type A people taking “busy” new a new level. We chug coffee and Red Bull. We stay-up late and get-up early. We don’t have time to talk, only to text. We know how to say “no” just as well as a drunken teenage girl does at 2am. We’re busier, more exhausted, sleeping less and more lonely and depressed running a race and climbing a ladder that we can’t find the end to.

And it’s not just nonbelievers doing it. Oh, we like to think so. Us Christians like to say that we don’t play the same games or run the same races. Or at least we don’t play by the same rules. But we’re buying in just as much and the stakes are HIGH. When Bible study becomes the next meeting and ministry becomes the next organization and when prayer gets tossed onto the to-do list we are going to find ourselves climbing the biblical ladder. Next, we’ll be electing the vice president of student body evangelism and the secretary of student council prayer.

However, our Biblical ladder looks a little different than typical student council elections or corporate ladders. We wear our cross pendants, WWJD bracelets, Jesus t-shirts, versus tattooed on our body in “appropriate” places, and we sport our ichthus car decals. We might not be passing out “vote for me” stickers, but we make sure others know we’re in the running for President of the Christian club. And just in case our efforts go unnoticed we stack-up on Steven Curtis Chapman, David Crowder Band, and Switchfoot CDs to play whenever our discipler is near. Our resume is our to-do list with special honors noted for leading multiple Bible studies or planning entire retreats. And most importantly, each disciplie that picks-up “(insert-name-here)-isms” provides a praise-worthy letter of recommendation.

As Election Day draws near we memorize our Bible verses and fill-out our Summer Project applications. While we ascend the ladder we’re tossing out KGPs with our left hand while straining upwards with our right. And when the votes are all in and we mount the top of the ladder we look around for the praise, for the glory… and for Jesus.

But you won’t find Jesus at the top. Jesus is back at the bottom of the ladder. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) Jesus wasn’t reaching for the next rung while tossing out tracks as he climbed. No, he was laying his life down, knowing that God would exalt His name above all other names when the time came. And Jesus wasn’t chosen to be exalted because he passed out the most “vote for me” stickers, owned the most Christian CDs, had the holiest resume or the most reformed letters of recommendation. Jesus was exalted because he was, is, and always will be the precious Son of God.

You can pass out your stickers, decorate your posters, fill your resume and collect your letters of recommendation. But at the end of the day, at the end of your life you are one of two things. You are an enemy of God, separated by sin and depravity or you are a child of God, justified through Jesus’ death of the cross. There is no ladder and there is no election, just the elect whom God selects. Your Creator and Father in Heaven is the only one whose vote counts, and it counts for eternity. So forget the Biblical ladder and turn to the cross. The cross will define who you were, who you are, and who you will be.