I wrote these words down in the margins of my calendar today: “Put God first and see what happens next.”

Life is already hard and complicated enough, and then I tend to overcomplicate it. My selfish desires can put me miles from where God wants me to be. I can wrongly assume I know how best to manage my time, relationships, and responsibilities. I’m a master of running ahead of God, and then having to deal with the fallout later on.

Words that I wrote last year in It’s All Under Control hit my between the eyes this morning:

“It’s the American way, baby — value individualism, do whatever you set your mind to. We’ve become so scarily self-sufficient — even as Christians. We believe in God, but we don’t actually rely on him. We manage our lives instead of living them. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” but if we run out of bread, we drive the Escalade to Costco to buy in bulk what we don’t really need anyway. We’re a society of problem solvers and outcome managers.”

God seemed to be asking me this morning: “So. How’s that working out for you, Jennifer?”

This is the only plan that works: Put God first.

I’m preaching to myself today, and maybe you needed to hear it too. Maybe you overcomplicate, overthink, overanalyze and overdo. And it leaves you feeling overwhelmed.

“Put God first” is the mantra of the overcomer. It’s the answer to your overwhelm. Yes, it sounds so simple, but maybe in this complicated world, we need a simple equation that puts everything else in order?

Let’s do it today. Imagine a world where every boss, every politician, every parent, every human put God above all else. Imagine the humility, kindness, generosity and sensibility that would emerge. Imagine the decisions that we would make, not only about the big things — like whether to move across the state — but about the little things, like what we should do this afternoon, or how we should react to the hurtful text message that you just received.

Imagine what it would look like to make God first in everything.

God wants to be first, and he deserves it. So let’s do it.

Let’s put God first on the calendar.

First in our decision-making.

First in our marriages.

First in our parenting.

First in our reactions.

First in our hearts and minds.

And then, let’s see what happens next.

“In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you.” (Proverbs 3:6, TLB)