God First?

What do we mean when we say things like "Put God first" or "Make Jesus central?" How does one "put" God anywhere? How does one "make" Jesus do anything?

Of course, we have very good intentions when we communicate by using phrases like those above. We mean something along the lines of obey God, be pious, go to church, read your Bible, and other things surrounding a devotional life... or a life devoted to God.

But good intentions assumed and aside, the language we use to communicate the need for a devotional and devoted life is very, very telling. What does this language tell us about ourselves and about our perception of the life devoted to God? It tells us that we, by and large, think that the God-devoted life is completely and utterly up to us being devoted to it.

That's a mouthful. Better stated: We've got the cart ahead of the horse, so much so that we think that we're the horse, instead of passengers in the cart.

Let's expand that metaphor a bit. As we're using it here, the Trinity is the horse, and we're passengers in his cart. Just as a cart can not get where it needs to go without the horse, so also are we stuck in our sin and death without God's Son, Jesus. This is our reality. This reality begins with God. God is. His name, Yahweh, I AM, says just that. Without him there is nothing; without him we are nothing.

But when we say "Put God first" or "Make Jesus the center", it's almost as though we're jumping past the truth that God is first already, before and whether or not we recognize it. It's almost as though we're forgetting that Jesus is already the center, before and whether or not we read about him or pray to him daily.

Isn't this just semantics? Isn't this just a different way of saying the same thing? No, I don't believe that it is. I think the Jews would have laughed at a phrase like "Put God first"... at least the pre-Pharisaical Jews would have. To them, God was first, whether in times of obedience and blessing, or in times of disobedience and discipline. God was real to them, whether they obeyed him or not. His presence was rarely assumed or manufactured. You can say what you want to about how they responded, Most of what the Jews did (or didn't do) was in response to God and the reality of his presence.

Likewise, I think Paul and the early Christian church would have balked at a phrase like "Make Jesus the center of your life." For them, Jesus was the center of their lives, whether or not they always lived like it. To be clear, they did want to live as if Jesus was the center, but that was not the same as making Jesus the center. It was recognizing that Jesus was the center, experiencing him and his Spirit, and then living in response to that recognition.

Let me put it another way. John Ortberg writes,

"What causes incongruence in my life is spending so much of my life unaware of [God's] presence. I allow myself to act and talk in ways that are not shaped or influenced by God's constant presence."

He illustrates the above statement with this example:

"I recently visited the Christian college I attended, and I was remembering the odd game we played in the cafeteria. As we sat down to eat, we would all surreptitiously put our thumbs up, and whoever was the last one at the table to get his thumb up had to offer the prayer over the food.

Now, think about that! God is watching this the whole time. But we're sticking our thumbs up, and the loser has to pray. Then we bow our heads and say, 'Dear God, thanks for this food and we love you so much.'

God is present the whole time, but we were acting as if he's not paying attention until we bow our heads and close our eyes; then he picks up the phone and we're connected. But we act as if the thumb stuff escapes his notice."

Live your life, speak your words, and do what you do as if God were present with you. Because He is.

Are we aware?