Days 205 and 206 - What or WHO is FIRST in my life?

Part of the song called One Thing that Rich Mullins wrote and sang:

Everybody I know says they need just one thing
And what they really mean is that they need just one thing more
And everybody seems to think they've got it coming
Well I know that I don't deserve You
Still I want to love and serve You more and more
You're my one thing

My one thing
You're my one thing


Can I honestly say that - is God my One Thing?

Chapter 18 of the PAPA prayer talks about hearing God’s voice and food-related examples of how I can evaluate what or who is first in my life:

“If I really do get more enjoyment out of [pie] than God, then an unhealthy addiction is inevitable.’

“Whatever brings me the most joy will prove irresistible.”

Crabb says that if we are “using” all the “second things” to fill up that empty space within us reserved for God, that we’ll not hear his voice, and our relationship will be shallow if at all real.

Again the rhetoric presents a very high wall for me spiritually speaking. Crabb says [we} should empty our inner space of everything but God and then – approach Him with freely acknowledged emptiness, claiming no hope of fullness unless He fills us.

That’s confusing. God only can empty us [purge] by filling us with His presence. I CANNOT ‘empty my inner space’ on my own. If I could, if anyone could, there would be no bad habits – just empty – present to God and he fills the cleaned-out vessel.

A clearer view of scriptural cleansing and filling would in my opinion be this - presenting whatever I’m filled with to God, and allowing Him to cleanse it by replacing it with His filling. Whatever space is filled with God no longer has room – it cannot contain the sin that used to reside there.

Why waste all that time trying to cleanse on my own and then present the empty bucket to God (doubt I’d ever get to that point anyway), when I can instead, come to Him AS I AM (remember – Christ came WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS), and as He fills me, I’ll be renewed, contents replaced… the old becoming new.

At least we both agree on the main thing – that my ONE THING, my FIRST IN MY LIFE relationship, must be with Christ if I hope to fill that inner void.


Food:  Ruby Tuesday's Trout Almondine,
Brocolli and instead of rice pilaf - SugarSnap Peas


Pizza Casserole and Fresh Green Grapes