FRIEND, GO UP HIGHER

Luke 14:10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.

Today’s text is one that has at its core a message of humility, a clear reminder that being humble gets one far. However, reading the Gospel today, I was hooked on  one statement “Friend, go up higher”. Other versions say ‘Friend, we have a better place than this for you’

This was an invitation to change seats at a feast, but it resonated as an invitation to shake off being comfortable. “Going up higher”, say on a mountain climb, means less oxygen becomes available, more advanced equipment to aid breathing have to be carried along and adaptation to breathing and weather changes at higher altitudes need to happen.

It will require the individual going up higher to embrace new rules and new laws. It will demand an invitation to embrace discomfort, and sometimes pain, if indeed the goal is to go higher. Sometimes, we have to be invited to go higher, and other times we have to be those inviting others higher. Regardless of where we stand, the reality is ‘there is always a better place’. Don’t get too comfortable.

#sly