First place. It’s what athletes go to sleep dreaming about. It’s the best you can hope for, the highest pinnacle, the top of the heap. Whether you’re a spelling bee champ, a 4-H winner, or a high school track star, that blue ribbon means the same thing: you’re the best in that field on that given day. If you’ve ever come in first in anything, you know it’s an incredible feeling. There isn’t much that matches it. You feel special, singled out, important.
First place finishes aren’t that rare, though. We award blue ribbons in our own lives every day: “Best Friend,” “Most Valuable Possession,” “1st Place in My Heart.” We may not actually hand them out, but we make decisions each day about what we’re going to allow to become or remain most important to us. Some of those decisions are made by default or inaction on our part, others we consciously decide by what we do. But no matter how they’re determined, the results are the same and the standings are recorded.
YIELD
What’s ranking high in your life right now and where is God in the standings? Is He running a close second to your boyfriend or girlfriend? Is He slipping back in the pack lately, falling back to seventh or eighth place even, depending on what else you have going on that day and what else sparks your interest?
The problem is, God wants first place in your heart. Every day, He wants you to award Him that blue ribbon that says He and He alone is the most important thing in your life. Are you surprised by that? Do you wonder why the God of the universe cares how He finishes in the daily race to be first in your heart? It might also surprise you to find out that God is jealous over you.
Jealousy isn’t usually a very pretty emotion and certainly not one we associate with God, but you only have to look at the beginning of the Ten Commandments to see that He isn’t just asking politely, He demands first place in your life. In Exodus 20:2–3, He says, “I am the LORD your God. . . . You shall have no other gods before me.” But that’s not all. He goes on to add in verse 5, “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.”
Unlike when we’re jealous, though, watching out for our own best interests and what we want or what we think will make us happy at the moment, God isn’t thinking of Himself alone. He has our best interests in mind. He wants to be first in our lives because He loves us and He wants what’s best for us. God knows that when we’re putting Him first, we’re going to get His best in our lives. And there’s nothing better than that.
If that’s the case, why wouldn’t we want to put God first in our lives? After all, we know He loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins. Is there anybody else, any of the other people or things competing for first place in your life that can say they love you that much? I didn’t think so.
YIELD
What keeps you from putting God first in your life? Are you afraid His best and your best won’t be the same? Are YIELD you afraid your life won’t turn out the way you planned or you won’t get something you really want?
The song “Above All” is a great reminder of that for me. Unlike most of what I record, I didn’t have anything to do with writing this song. It appears on my first worship project, simply titled Worship, and for that CD I was really concerned with trying to find ten to fifteen great worship songs. This was the first record where I didn’t write every song on my album.
It’s interesting because I have so many people who say, “I love your song!” and I tell them, “I didn’t write ‘Above All.’” I must have said that a thousand times. But I love it because it gives me a great opportunity to talk about Paul Baloche and Lenny LeBlanc, the two talented worship leaders and songwriters who are responsible for writing the song. You’ve probably sung Paul’s song “Open the Eyes of My Heart” many times before in church or during a worship service, or you may have come across it on your local Christian radio station. In addition to his songwriting, Lenny has lent his musical talents to legendary artists like Roy Orbison, The Supremes, and Amy Grant, among others.
I first stumbled upon “Above All” while going through worship compilation CDs to find music for New River Fellowship in Franklin, Tennessee. I immediately knew it was a great song. It’s so visual and a wonderful marriage of music and words. It made such an impact on me, in fact, that to this day I cry sometimes when I start to sing it. That’s nothing compared to the first time I played it, though. I’ll never forget that. It was at New River, and I lost it. I cried through the entire song. There is something about it that is very, very powerful. I can’t explain it.
I guess that’s why I decided I had to play it at the Inaugural Prayer Service at the Washington Cathedral when George W. Bush was sworn in as our 43rd president. I had only first heard it the month before, and it wasn’t the song I was originally going to sing for the incoming president. It was going to be a very traditional service, and those who were doing the planning seemed to have their minds set on me doing a hymn. They even went so far as to suggest several songs the president liked. But once I found “Above All,” I knew it was perfect. I thought, That’s what I’ve got to sing! There were consequences, though, of performing a song that was so new to me. If you go back and watch the footage it’s funny because you can see that I’ve got little cheat sheets, tiny pieces of paper on the piano, to keep me from forgetting the words or music. Still, it was more than worth it to me.
Although the song was new to me, it had been written about three years earlier. I just hadn’t heard it before. But once I made the discovery, I was going to make the most of it. It was a no-brainer to include it on Worship because I saw how it affected people everywhere when I sang it. I knew it had to be part of the lineup of that disc. Making it even more special, I’d met the songwriters on a worship tour I did with worship artist Don Moen. That connecting point was great because it meant I got to hear a few details about how the song came about. I’m still not sure exactly what inspired it, but Paul told me that as they were writing it together, these two grown men just kept crying. I was glad to hear I wasn’t the only one. Apparently, it’s really emotional for a lot of people.
YIELD
Has a song ever moved you that deeply? Has a time of worship ever brought about that kind of response? When you think about what God has done for you and how He still pursues you and wants to be part of your life, how does that make you feel?
AFTER YOU. NO, AFTER YOU!
There are many ways we can put God first in our lives. Often, it’s as simple as including Him in our day. Do you segregate God, making Him a “church only” savior? He doesn’t just hang around, waiting for you to take Him to youth group on Wednesday night or invite Him along to Sunday school. God wants to be part of everything you do.
Going to the mall? Take Him along and let Him influence your behavior and decisions. Is the way you’re treating the salespeople, those you’re shopping with, or the employees at the food court honoring to Him? Next, you might take Him along to basketball practice or to the gym. Does the way you respond to others on the court or in the weight room change when you make a conscious decision to put God first? Now imagine it’s dinnertime, and as you sit down with your family, Jesus joins you as well. Do you react differently to your parents? Your brothers and sisters? Are you more patient? Now it’s homework time. With God joining you as you study, does it change the effort you make? Will it affect whether or not you agree to share the answers with that guy who sits next to you in fourth period who didn’t do the work? Finally, you’re talking on the phone with a friend later that night. The conversation turns to a girl you don’t really like. How is the conversation different when you invite God to listen in and when you don’t?
Are you getting the idea? It takes effort to really give God first place in your life, but the benefits are huge. No one else you can award that ribbon to has the power to make as much of an impact.
YIELD
What parts of your day do you usually include God in? What parts of your day does He get excluded from? Why is that? What would happen if you really let God into every area of your life? How would your behavior change?
A TWO-WAY STREET
The really crazy part of this whole thing is that God doesn’t just want to be first in our lives, He puts us first, too. Now if you really think about it, it makes perfect sense that the Creator of heaven and earth would want to take His rightful place in our lives. But what did we do in this particular case to deserve first place? What could we do that would be enough to deserve such a prize?
Absolutely nothing.
That’s both sobering and a huge relief. There’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love. At the same time, there’s nothing we have to do to earn God’s love. He just gives it freely. That may not mean much until you look at the way we love each other. Often, even under the best of circumstances, our affection comes with strings attached. We give because we get. We love someone because it makes us feel good about ourselves or we get love in return. God, on the other hand, just loves us, knowing that in many cases the people He created aren’t even going to love Him back. At the very least, it’s certain we won’t be able to love Him the way He deserves to be loved. And yet He carries on. He keeps loving us, keeps waiting patiently for us to get the message, to understand what’s really important.
At the end of the day, there’s one final truth we all need to grasp. It’s what I try to communicate again and again when I lead worship. Sometimes we get so carried away living our lives, rushing to complete all the things we’ve deemed important, that it’s easy for us to forget that it’s not about us. It never was. While God loves us more than we can ask or imagine, He’s the star of the show. He’s the one who deserves all the attention, all the praise. Of course, He doesn’t need us to tell Him that. Whatever place we choose to give Him in our lives, first place was awarded a long, long time ago, and He was the winner.