The Center

When I was a newborn Christian in 1974, a song that would make a lasting impression on me was also brand spanking new, although the words were straight from the Bible and core to the ancient ways of the faith.  Written by Karen Lafferty, it began spreading like wildfire through the kids (and meetings) of the Jesus movement and was a steadfast part of the worship menu when contemporary Christian music was taking its first toddler steps, and thousands of new believers were hungry for the food that their Savior offered to a new generation.   

I don’t hear it often anymore, but there is a rhythm of it that shaped my young beliefs and I’ve been considering this morning how much its simple melody seems to have held and shaped me.  I remember considering it way back then, letting the lyrics wash over me, and soaking in the promises.  It seemed the foundation of the whole of the gospel message and how to do this life that I was discovering, observing, and beginning to experience.  I remember singing it often in a round as a room crowded with young adults in long skirts, tattered jeans, many with bare feet, and both male and female with long hair as we gathered in a circle of chairs, benches, or on the floor—wherever there was room.

And more often than not, this little simple round would spring up somewhere before the meeting was over…

Seek ye first the kingdom of God


And His righteousness


And all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu, alleluia



Man does not live by bread alone


But by every word


That proceeds from the mouth of God
Allelu, alleluia



Ask and it shall be given unto you


Seek and ye shall find


Knock and the door shall be opened unto you
Allelu, alleluia



Seek ye first the kingdom of God


And His righteousness


And all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu, alleluia



Man does not live by bread alone


But by every word


That proceeds from the mouth of God
Allelu, alleluia

The song invited me to live a life with Jesus at the center, God first, faith central, and to expect and watch how He moved and provided as I trusted Him that I could live with life in that order.  I took it as a serious and joyful offer from the heart of a God I barely knew to jump in with both feet and see what He would do as I lived that way.  There have been plenty of dark nights and stormy days to journey through with sometimes only a small candle of promise in the distance, but I have seen unexpected provision, miraculous timing, prayers in abundance answered as I have taken Him at His word.  He works in ways we would never have dared to imagine. 

I encourage you today to readjust your life to this order.  It is the way we were intended to live.  It is a relationship of dependence on God and freedom for all the gifts He has deposited into your life and wants to bring together with others who are consumed with hunger to know Him and reach the waiting hungry and thirsty souls that have almost given up that good is there for their lives.  We have a job to do and we cannot do it if we are chasing earthly riches and security.  We HAVE security in the One who will lead and provide as we follow.  We can tend to the work and responsibilities of life (it isn’t abandoning those considerations), but keeping the priorities right as we go.  There is far more help and guidance and supplies than we would hope for.