First Things First
On a demanding day, I may not get to do all of the things I want to do. Sometimes, I am so busy that I cannot even do all of the things I need to do. Important deadlines get pushed back. Urgent calls must wait. Newsletter articles and sermons are put on hold. Aside from a true pastoral emergency all of the other busyness would wait, but often it feels like I am not able to focus on what really matters—what I really desire to do.
Do you ever have days when you are too busy to eat? Do you ever feel like even the most basic human functions and necessities are distractions from what you are really supposed to be doing? Yeah, sometimes I feel like that, too, but I also know that feeling does not come from God. God does not ask us to sacrifice our humanity in the name of productivity, even when that productivity belongs to a member of the clergy.
Still, on those busy days, I occasionally have the opportunity to do something that feels truly important even though it seems to take me away from the acute demands of the day. A parishioner will stop by without an appointment and knock on my office door and ask for five minutes. I know right away that they really mean fifteen, and, although I may begin the encounter worried how I will make up that time, by the end of the visit, I am grateful that someone has trusted me with their pastoral concerns. I may not have time to go back to the hospital a second time to pray with the parishioner who just arrived in the emergency department with a broken hip, but I make time because there is no where I would rather be than at that bedside.
Whenever we get to do the right thing—the important thing, the thing that God is calling us to do—it feels good. Even if we must let go of other important things that cannot also be completed, the stress and anxiety of those unfinished tasks is far overshadowed by the faithful satisfaction of knowing that we were available to God in the right way at the right time. I crave more of that deep, soulful satisfaction in my life. Don’t you?
I think it is easy to forget what really matters, especially when the demands upon us are numerous, real, significant, urgent, important, good, and godly. Figuring out how to prioritize those demands is as much a spiritual discipline as a logistical enterprise, and I have experienced both the successes and the failures that come with trying to get it right. Although it may sound simple, one principle that has helped me learn how to put everything in the right order is to keep the first things first.
When I was fresh out of seminary, I remember Robert, my boss, emphasizing the importance of starting every day with prayer. While I agreed that daily prayer was valuable, I did not see the necessity of praying first thing. Back then, I assumed that was his personal preference—one that reflected his faithfully compulsive nature. As long as I said Morning Prayer by ten o’clock, I convinced myself, I did not see any harm in the delay. Since then, however, I have learned why starting with prayer really matters. It is not because God demands the very first moments of my day. It is because, if I spend those first few moments doing something else, I will spend the rest of the day trying to make space for God instead of believing that God has given me a day that will always have enough room in it for what really matters, and what really matters is God.
The Bible has a lot to say about first things—first fruits, firstborns, first days. When God sends Moses to confront Pharaoh and demand that he let God’s people go, God tells Moses to explain to Pharaoh that Israel is God’s “firstborn son” and that, if Pharaoh refuses to set God’s people free, it will come at the cost of all the firstborn in Egypt (Exodus 4:22-23). That foreshadowing and the plague that follows become the basis for our practice of stewardship. Because God has chosen us to be first and has accomplished our salvation through the sacrifice of the firstborn, we give back to God our own first in order to remember what God has done on our behalf.
God asks God’s people for the first fruits of their harvest—the choicest livestock, fruit, and grain—not because God only wants our best but because God knows that if we only give back to God what is leftover we will never have enough. We give our first things to God not because God demands it but because we want to—because we want to fill our days with what really matters and because we want the satisfaction of knowing that we have said yes to God.
When you face a really busy day, what things are you willing to give up, and what things are you certain to maintain? Do you sacrifice your daily exercise routine? Do you skip that second cup of coffee? Do you forego reading the paper or listening to your favorite podcast? Do you neglect brushing your teeth? Do you decide not to shower or even change your clothes and instead go to work in your pajamas? God has given us an abundance of time, talent, and treasure. With God’s abundance, there is always enough to do what is most important, and it is by devoting to God the first portion of that abundance that we remember that.
This Sunday is Celebration Sunday, when everyone is invited to come together and celebrate God’s abundance by committing to God our first-fruits offering for the coming year. Each of us has the opportunity to fill our days with what really matters, and we do that by starting with God. Instead of making a household budget and calculating how much you can afford to give to God, start by putting first things first. Decide to commit to God the first ten percent of your income in 2026, and trust that the budget you prepare in response to that decision will be good and godly and life-giving.
Will you have to sacrifice other things in order to make that sort of commitment to God in your life? Absolutely, and that is the point of stewardship. We give not because we expect to get more in return but because giving something significant back to God teaches us to put God first—financially, spiritually, professionally, and relationally. The freedom that comes from spending every penny with the built-in knowledge that God has given you enough to do what really matters is more than worth it. The joy of faithfulness always overshadows the anxiety of scarcity. The satisfaction of belonging to God is more important than anything we can achieve on our own.
Yours faithfully,
Evan D. Garner
