what goes first

or why order matters.

Faith is the highest passion in a human being. There are perhaps many in every generation who do not even come to it, but nobody goes further. Whether there are also many in our age who do not discover it, I do not decide; I dare only refer to myself, who does not conceal that it may not happen for a long time to come for him, yet without his therefore wishing to deceive himself or the great by making it into a trifling matter, into a childhood malady one must wish to get over as soon as possible. But life has tasks enough also for the one who does not one day come to faith, and if he honestly loves them, then his life will not be wasted, even if it never becomes like those who were sensible of and grasped the highest. But the one who has come to faith (whether he is extraordinarily gifted or simple-minded does not matter) does not come to a standstill in faith. Indeed, he would be shocked if someone said this to him, just as the lover would feel indignant if one said he had come to a standstill in love, for he would answer, “I am not standing still at all since I have my life in it.” Yet he gets no further, nor to something else, for if he discovers the latter, then he has another explanation.

Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy), 108-109