Who’s on First?

by Andrew Cromwell

In the old Abbott and Costello routine, the two argued about a baseball game with the central disagreement starting with the question, “Who’s on first?” For those who have never seen the bit, a quick search on YouTube will satisfy that crucial gap in your education. The two comics banter back and forth with one trying to get the other to understand the names of the players that are playing at each of the base positions.

When watching baseball, football, soccer or any other game, the first question anyone asks is “who is playing?” This question is crucial to our ability to understand and enjoy the game. If you don’t know “who’s on first” then it is very difficult to know whether you are rooting for the right team!

Let me ask you an important question. Who’s on first? In other words, who or what is in first place in your life? How you answer that question has a drastic impact on the rest of your life. It determines how you spend your time, how you treat other people, how you spend your money and what your future looks like.

This is not a question that you answer once and then move on. Instead, it is a question that has to be answered daily. This is because life changes. Circumstances can flip from one day to another and almost without thinking, we have put someone else on first.

Identifying who or what is in first place in someone’s life is generally pretty easy. Take a look at someone’s social media feed and you generally can figure out what is most important to them. For many, it is right there in their profile. For some it is dolla dolla bills and for others it is family. Some list God as their number one priority in life and some, love and kindness. Of course, there are those who say one thing in their profile, but their feed says something different. Their feed screams cars, sex, a hard body, adrenaline, or awesome vacations take first place.

What would someone say after reading your life? Maybe you don’t have a social media feed, but if someone looked in on your life from the outside and evaluated your time, money and relationships, what would they say? Who or what is in first place?

Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Colossae, wrote there is One Person who should be first in everything, Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said when anyone puts His Kingdom first He will make everything else fall into place.

For most of us, the default person in first place is self. We put ourself first -- what we want, how we want it, and when we want it. Our personal desires drive our life. I don’t know about you, but I have found that when I allow my personal desires to drive my life, I generally end up in a place I don’t really like! When I’m in first place, then my wife and my kids feel cheated and ignored. When I’m in first place, I end up wasting my time instead of investing my time. And when I’m in first place, I end up pleasing myself instead of pleasing my Father in Heaven.

So who are you putting in first place? Maybe it’s time to get out of the driver’s seat and hand the keys to someone you can trust.