Last Person on the List

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. —Philippians 2:3, 4, NIV

It was my birthday, and my colleagues at work had organized a lunch celebration for me. They always tried to arrange for such events to be surprises, but they never surprised anyone. Everyone knew that sometime during their birthday week, the staff of nine women and one man would come together to celebrate. We were almost like a family.

Although it was not usual to give gifts during birthday celebrations, for some reason, the staff thought it would be good to give gifts on my birthday.

With input from colleagues, a coworker prepared a poster to present to me. It listed in vertical order most of the roles they perceived that I played in society: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Sister, Aunt, Friend, Colleague, Citizen, and others.

At the bottom of the list was the word Person.

The colleague presenting the gift told me that the staff wanted me to keep the poster in my office as a constant reminder of the message they wanted to convey.

She acknowledged that the order in which the roles were listed did not have anything to do with my performance in each category, except for the last one, as they believed that I tried to be the best in whatever role I played. She said their message to me was related to the last role on the list: Person. According to my colleagues, I placed myself last on my list, and their wish for me was that I would work to move Person to the top of the list.

I have to admit that I was honored to have been perceived as an unselfish person. But I was, and still am, comfortable with being last on my list.

That is the example Christ has left for us, as outlined in Philippians 2:5, 6. While there are some circumstances in life that require us to pay attention to ourselves so we can better serve others, as Christian women, we do not have to think about the notion of making self first all the time. When we get to heaven, no one will regret not placing themselves first on their list. There is no shame in being last. After all, Jesus reminds us that “the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16, NKJV).

Evelyne Izeogu