first

One of the earliest referred to as being commended for their faith in Hebrews 11 is Abel.  I love that Abel is in here because his story represents a very relevant faith practice that I find is fundamental to the discipleship process.  The story of Cain and Abel forces me to self examine in the space of where I place God in my priorities.  In the earlier years of Saturday Night Live, Billy Crystal played a character named Fernando.  One of the most notable lines from Fernando is "Looking good is better than being good".  On the surface this may seem like a throwaway line, but its actually quite profound.  It applies here in the story of Cain and Abel.  It actually identifies the sometimes murky but actually quite profound difference between their gifts offered before God.  It also identifies a constant struggle in  my own spiritual journey pursuing Jesus.  What is the difference between the two ... looking good and being good I mean ... glad you asked.  "Looking good", in my opinion,  is the shortcut that we attempt in our original desire to follow Jesus.  "Being good" is a point of spiritual maturity where you just have God as preeminent in all things.  Cain and Abel both made offerings to God and yet one was accepted and one not so much.  Look closely and you see that the difference was that one gave "some" and the other gave first and from the first.  Cain gave some in a desire to "look good" while Able gave first as a reflection of "being good".  The gifts revealed where each was at.  The thing that is often tragically overlooked though, but must not be, is that Cain was not condemned for his gift.  The indication is that it was an opportunity for teaching, that Cain would have had another shot.  It was grace in its earliest form.  The bar was set at a certain height and he had another shot at getting over it.  Instead he chose to eliminate the bar.  
Too many times I have chosen to eliminate the bar.  Too often I'm attempting to take the shortcut of "looking good" rather than investing in the journey of "being good".  And so the question continues ... "Am I giving Him my first or am I giving what's left over?"  When it comes to resources, it's really not that difficult to determine ... all I need to do is look at my bank statements.  When it comes to my time, all I really need to do is look at my calendar.  Fortunately ... Each day I get to do it over again, and prayerfully I'll choose to clear the bar rather than eliminate it.