Thoughts on Thinking Well Beyond the Boxes

We have some "locked in thinking" about self-preservation, competition, and control. Through a series of opportunities, Jesus invites thinking change in his student-brothers.

Think like a dead man.
Think like a servant.
Think like a child.

I will not fill in the blanks here. You will have to do the work on this one and see if it propels.

They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward. -  Mark 9:30-41, NIV  

Furthermore...

When introducing radical paradigm shifting thinking, don't count on people "getting it" right away ... unless those people are kids or kids at heart.

" And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” - Mark 9:33-37 ESV

I have been Eutychus, dazing and dozing through the droning of the prophets.
I have been Paul droning into the hours of hunger and sleep,
I have lost my focus and fallen from high place to near death spiritually.
I have been awakened by the same word that lulled me.
And ... I pray, that. like Paul, I have been or will be used to awaken the dead.

We cannot always stay awake, but we can be awakened.

We cannot always keep folks awake, but we can call them to awakening and ...

... Some will wake up.

"On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted." -Acts 20:7-12 ESV