The first conversation is here! Matt Kitchen is a 7th Grade math teacher in Maple Heights, Ohio and a newlywed who’s been married to Shannon for 1 year. You won’t want to miss Matt’s honest look at what it means for him to live in Last Place and how he thinks you could too.
Name:: Matt Kitchen
Age:: 24
Location:: Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Occupation:: 7th Grade Math Teacher
Contact Info:: mskitchen@gmail.com
Q:: Jesus says “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” When you read these words do you see them as relevant for today? What do you think Jesus is calling us to here and how does it work out today?
A:: I don’t think it can get more relevant than these words from Jesus. Jesus is calling us to be a servant of others and to put everyone you meet before yourself. Whatever needs they have become a priority over yours – acts of complete selflessness. Jesus is telling us that we are on this earth to serve others and it is the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. These are powerful words and should change the social structure of his people – Christ should be seen through our servant-hood.
Q:: Talk about one way that you see Jesus demonstrating this kind of living? Why does that stand out to you? How does it apply to the circumstances you find yourself in today?
A:: Thank God for the gospels so we can see Jesus live and do things. It gives us a great precedent to follow after a resource we can continually look back at and set our standards to. If you haven’t read through a gospel recently – do it, I like John. When I think of an example of Jesus putting himself last I think of the story of Zacheus and when Jesus called him down from the tree to go have dinner with him. The story that I sung as a child but only now fully grasp the depth of what Jesus did. Zacheus was a tax collector that pretty much everyone hated. If your not familiar with the history – the Jews were taxed a ridiculous amount of their income that Zacheus would collect and he would then collect another portion above this for his own income, yes, he was cheating the people that he lived nearby. So what Jesus does is quite remarkable, he singles out the one person in the crowd who is hated by everyone else – a sinner who takes hard earned money from God fearing people – and invites himself over to his house. I’m sure Zacheus could count the number of friends he had on one hand even if he had no fingers available to use. I am sure he is lonely, hurt, hardened, weary, full of shame, etc, etc. And Jesus picks this go to go sit down with and talk and INVEST in. What boggles my mind with this is the level of servant-hood Jesus is at in this story. We aren’t talking baking a pie for a family that has experienced a death, telling somebody that you are praying for them in a quick passing, holding the door open for a stranger, helping a stranger carry their groceries – which are all nice and great ways to serve in the name of Christ. We are talking about finding the person that nobody else cares about and investing time in their lives and restoring them to a place they deserve to be. Wow – scary. It’s me calling my brother after not having talked to him in many many months to see how he is doing and what I can do to serve him. It is going to the person at work that gets dumped on, paying them a compliment and then asking if you can take them out to lunch. It is showing Christ’s love in ways that you may not feel comfortable doing, but that needs to be done. P.S. I wish I had a better grasp of this in High School, there were kids at certain lunch tables that needed the love of Christ.
Q:: Talk about your current circumstances and how you try and intentionally put yourself in last place? What have been some of the biggest challenges? How have you seen Life come through these attempts (both personally and with others)?
A:: I’m a teacher and I am blessed to be in a job where I can show Christ’s love and put others first many many times a day. It comes more natural to show it with the students, sacrificing your time before or after to school to help them with work or just to talk. Telling them and showing them how important they are. Staying up late to plan good lessons or going to the store to buy some treats for them. As a teacher our focus is on the students and it is easier to serve them and put them first – it is our job. However, it is equally important to me to serve my coworkers. A teachers time w/o students during the day is very valuable as we always have a million things to prepare for, but I try to sacrifice my time to help other teachers with their technology woes, or help to encourage them when they are having a tough day, make extra copies for them, or just sit and chat for 5 minutes so they can enjoy some adult conversation. These steps hopefully open the door for greater conversations and greater avenues for me to serve them. The challenges in serving others and putting them first are usually the same (for me) – selfishness. I could be doing something for myself right now, why would i be doing something for somebody else. If you grew up a loner (read lonely) like me these things are often more difficult, Initiating relationships are not easy for me cause I am not great at them. Probably because they require a lot of continual work and eventually I want to flake out – Jesus never flaked out. He hasn’t flaked out on me yet even though I have tried a couple times. I continually look to his example and strive to make myself more like him.
In the past, the biggest things I have seen come from putting others first is that they start a relationship with Jesus Christ. After all, that’s why you started a relationship with them – not just because you want them to know Christ, but because Christ lead you to invest in someone. And Christ should naturally pour out of that relationship and they should want what you have and hopefully they will repeat the process.
Q:: Tell us a little bit about your journey towards living in last place in your everyday life. (have you always lived this way, what caused you to live this way, how did you start applying this concept to your job, neighborhood, family, freetime)
A:: I alluded before that I wish I would have done this more in High School as there was so much good I could have done, but i really didn’t start living the sacrificial life until college. I think as a child of faith you live sort of like a Child and it is difficult to grasp these more complicated concepts until you internalize your faith. Or it could just be that I never took the time to concentrate on the life of Jesus and what that meant to live out. I was still living for myself. I live this way now because I call myself a Christ follower and I choose to follow Jesus. You can’t be a follower of Jesus and not put others first, it is essential to who he is. When you finally grasp the concept you put on a some new lenses and you see life differently. Your patience increases because angrily honking your horn or giving people a disapproving stair does not make the line go faster and does nothing for their self esteem. Your love for people increases as you begin to see more smiles when you hold the door open and pick up something somebody dropped. And most of all your willingness to serve increases with each day you serve others, it becomes a lifestyle. You stop thinking about yourself and look at the needs of other people way before you consider your own – talk about mind blowing.
Q:: Living this way is not easy and very often we choose not to live in last place. What are some key truths that you hold onto when you feel like you are failing at living this way?
A:: First off, you are going to fail at this. If you choose to live this way you have introduced a dichotomy to your American life. American society tells you that you worry about yourself and everything is about making you feel better. Spend your money on yourself, drink because it is fun for you, go out and have a good time for you, don’t worry about others. Every show you see, every commercial you watch, and many of the people you talk to on a daily basis are going to believe that you watch out for #1 and worry about others only when necessary to your pleasured existence. SO, when I lose track of serving and focus on what American life is telling me to do, I have a quick conversation with God. He realigns my thinking. It is about living in constant communication with God so he can tell if you something is wack or right on. And I know I am going to fail sometimes, it is just a matter that I do not concentrate on the fact that I am going to fail – i just keep plugging away, but when I slip, God picks me up, i find out what I slipped on and strive to avoid that patch next time I walk that way. Pretty soon you get into a rhythm of ducking and dodging and you cruise.
Q:: Dream a little bit with us. What do you think would happen if more people embraced this way of living? How would that affect the Church? How would impact communities?
A:: I think the new word in Christian conversation should be Viral. Because this and many other concepts in Christianity are meant to be viral or spread quickly. If you seek someone out to serve and invest in, take the time and do it right, then they should want to seek someone else to serve and invest in and it should spread. It doesn’t always work this well because too often we aren’t doing what we wish we would be doing. We need to do buck up and do it. The church would not only increase but deepen as there would be many people in deeper relationships experiencing God than the Hi-Bye relationships you often see on Sunday mornings. Out of it you grow, they grow, people are strengthened, the Church is strengthened, neighbors are strengthened, communities are strengthened, and this country is strengthened under the bonds of love, support, encouragement, servant-hood, and Jesus.
Q:: Any last words to further the conversation?
A:: My last words to further the conversation are just to have a conversation about this with someone. Even if you don’t think there is anyone you can invest in right now, pray about it with God, find another Christian to talk to and engage in conversation about what it looks like to be a world changer – a man or woman of God, someone who is going to put all others before themselves. I think the conversation and prayer will turn you into someone who is ready to invest when the time arises. Always be ready, you never know when you will be needed – that’s what is so exciting about being a Christian.
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Good stuff. As a teacher, I’m challenged in how I might better serve my coworkers. Well said.