Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Do you want to be first?
Okay, so maybe not first. But probably not last. Last can leave us with the piece of cake with the least frosting on it, the book with a flaw on the cover, the prayer card for a saint we don’t know anything about… you know, the leftovers physically or 
spiritually.
And yet, last is exactly where God wants us.
I have this sign on the wall at work. The source is anonymous, but it’s clearly Spirit-inspired:
If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
Speed, you see, kills the soul. When we go fast, our eyes are on the finish line, not those who are struggling behind us. We don’t see their hands go up, asking for help or expressing despair. We don’t hear their ragged breath or see the sorrow in their eyes.
When we cease to be concerned about helping everyone—our family, our friends, our neighbors, the people we pass on the street every day or hear about on the news—in the way in which God desires, we take ourselves off the track to eternal salvation. Lent starts tomorrow. It’s a great time to get back on track.
