Consider this...

"even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matt: 20:29

 

"I've created a monster. The monster is me. I can't blame anyone else. It's what I've worked for since I was a kid. I would have killed for this. Whatever happens to me is all my fault. It's what I wanted. It's what we all strive for. Success, fame, money, sex, drugs--whatever you want. I can have it. But now I'm beginning to see that as much as I created it, I want to escape from it. I'm starting to worry that I can't control it, as much as it controls me...it's a heck of a journey, and I'm enjoying the ride, I assure you. But there are times..." **

 

Leslie-Ann Jones in her book Mercury, quoted these words from Freddy Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen. She found him in a reflective mood in 1986, five years before he died from complications of the AIDS virus. Regarded as a musical genius by many, his career is a vivid illustration of what one man said, "I worked hard to climb the ladder of success, but when I reached the top I realized it was leaning against the wrong building."

 

After seeing the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" I found Jones' biography of Mercury; reading it broke my heart. Queen is the number 1 all-time selling group in Great Britain: the Beatles are number 2. Queen is the only band whose four members each wrote more than one #1 Hit Song. They were an unusually gifted foursome, and were by all normal worldly standards wildly successful, led by Freddy Mercury's talent. But in his quote above, there is a glimpse of what Jesus said, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matt. 16:26) Freddy Mercury died at age 45, a result, as he said of his own choices.

 

Christmas is a time to reflect on what really matters. When his men squabbled about who was first or best, Jesus did not rebuke them for wanting to succeed, to be first or best. He contrasted the world's way of getting there to his own way. We don't "lord it over others" or "exercise our authority" over others, he reminded them. Our way to the top is to go to the bottom, to serve and to give our lives away. He said it, then he did it. He was born to die as a ransom for the rotten -- people like me (and you).

 

Christmas means serve your way to the bottom/top. To be promoted, give. The first among us is the servant of all of us. Do not waste your life, your gifts and talents, striving to succeed in the way our culture recognizes success. Live for that One Eye who sees all.

Merry Christmas, I'll see you at the bottom, Perry Floyd

 

** Mercury, An Intimate Biography of Freddy Mercury, Jones, Leslie-Ann, Simon & Schuster, 2011, p. 5