The Most Important Thing in Life

"The most important thing in life is knowing God better." So said theologian and author Dr. Selwyn Hughes in his daily devotional booklet "Every Day with Jesus:The Character of God." Dr. Hughes, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at his home in Farnham, England, does more than make the statement. He explains why it is true. "If God is not our primary focus, then everything else will soon get out of focus."

Does his response sound churchey? Something you'd expect a devotional writer to say? But wait! He gets to the heart of the issue in his booklet's Introduction. "When given permission to dominate our thoughts, our personal matters become impossible to satisfy. We could speak of them all day long and never tire of their finest details." We become man-centered and not God-centered.

Yet when you read the Bible, the first words are "In the beginning God ... " The Bible is HIStory. It's about God seeking man, not man seeking God. It's message is not how to get to God but how God came to us! When we put ourselves first and God second, we become entrenched in our own self-absorbed, self-referenced lifestyle. And we lose focus.

Today I was on an airplane. I saw the tiny dots on planet Earth that we call houses, inhabited by even smaller people. Above it all, I witnessed their scurrying about in miniscule cars like rats in a maze of interstates and highways. How could any of them think the world revolved around them, yet the moment I landed, I lost my heavenly perspective. Life once again was all about me. I lost focus.

Surely, God watches every sparrow fall and counts the number of our hairs. We are not unimportant, but we are not all-important. If we are to know God, we must study His character. I tried to strike this theme in my book, Living Between the Ditches: When God Doesn't Make Sense. We can know God. God is mystery. By embracing both truths, we keep from living in the ditches of a self-focused life.