Preeminent

Depending on the day, what is predominant in our lives tends to change. The car that won't start. The big promotion at work. The birth of a baby. All of them can dominate our thoughts for a period of time.

Give anything enough attention, and it begins to feel larger for a period. It occupies our thoughts, influences our decisions, and quietly becomes the lens through which we see everything else.

But predominant and preeminent are not the same thing.

Predominant describes what occupies the most space. Preeminent describes what stands above everything else.

Paul chose that word when writing about Christ: “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist… that in all things he might have the preeminence.” Colossians 1:17–18.

That distinction has been on my mind because the things that become predominant are not always bad things.

I have known people whose lives revolved around church. Their calendars were built around it. Their closest friendships came from it. They knew Scripture, doctrine, worship, tradition, and the language of faith.

Christ was important to them. Very important.

But preeminent?

That is a different question.

Because preeminence is revealed when something else comes asking for first place.

A career opportunity appears, and suddenly obedience becomes negotiable. Our children need something, and without realizing it, we begin building our lives around them instead of Christ. Success, security, family, comfort, even our dreams can quietly move from being blessings we love to things we refuse to place beneath Him.

And perhaps that is where the difference becomes clear.

Jesus is not preeminent because He matters greatly to me.

He is preeminent when nothing matters more.

That is uncomfortable, because most of us would never consciously move Christ down the list. We simply allow something else to move above Him.

So perhaps the question is not how Christian my life appears, how often I attend church, or even how strongly I hold my beliefs.

The deeper question is what happens when something I deeply love competes with what Christ asks of me.

What wins?

That answer may tell me far more about what is predominant in my life and Who is truly preeminent.

If someone came to mind while reading this, read it again for yourself first.

Then share it.

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