What's wrong with greatness?

I admire people who have dedicated themselves to becoming the best at something.  There are authors, athletes, scientists and educators that I regard as great people. They are great not because they like to be but they are great because they have given everything about themselves to excel in life. I guess one of the things about great people is that they cause me to look at my own life. In what am I pursuing greatness?What are you working on right now? What kind of conversations are you having with friends about what you aspire to and how do you invite them to be part of that aspiration? The text for this Sunday, Luke 9:46-48 records an event that is usually seen as the petty arguing and jockeying for position among the disciples of Jesus. Is it possible that maybe the question arose from a more noble discussion? Could it be that their discussion sounded more like, "Well, what is greatness, and who is great, and how do we become great, and which one of us is farthest along on this journey and how can we all be great for God?"  It strikes me as noteworthy that Jesus doesn't rebuke the 12 for missing the point in Luke's account. His response is to point to a child that was present and re-frames the discussion with a brief statement about how greatness is defined in his Kingdom. What do you think? You might check out Mark 9 and Matthew 18 to add breadth to your thinking.