If you have traveled on Southwest Airlines, you are aware of how they line people up prior to boarding. You receive a lettered group of A, B, or C and a number. You line up with your group and in sequence based on your numbers. This means that before every flight, you’ll hear people ask over and over, “What number are you?” Some don’t ask and simply place themselves in the line. I have been A-1 before and had someone stand in line in front of me. There is nothing before A-1 in the line! It is crazy the urgency of some to board the plane and get the perfect seat. For some, I think it has more to do with a sense of entitlement. No one is going to cheat me out of my place in line! I deserve it!

Of course, you can’t deserve your place in the line more than another. We are all getting on the plane and going to the same place. In life, some of us act like people in a Southwest boarding line. We want our place in line, and we will sometimes put ourselves ahead of others without merit. Good stewardship allows us to see our actions in this regard as folly. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” We are called to serve and not to be served. If we seek what we truly deserve in this life, we will find that we are not actually entitled to much. If we humble ourselves and seek to serve others, we will receive an abundance of good things, even though we still won’t deserve it. For all we receive, whether we are A-1 or C-30, is a gift.

-Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS