Val Snekvik/Grace Schmelzer

I, Val, once met a man who had lost his wife, his church, and essentially his job (whether it was as a passionate volunteer or his career, I don’t recall) over some really bad choices. I’ll call him Charlie. He came to us in a low place, but totally wanting to piece his life back together. In an AA sort of way, Charlie was basically communicating to those of us who met him, short of God’s intervention he didn’t have much hope for his life going well.

As grave as the stakes were, and as newspaper headlinesy as his actions had been, what was more striking to me was Charlie’s story as it unfolded. Basically, by the time he left our community years later, his marriage and family was on its way to being restored, his hope in front of him, and his connection with friends and God truly vibrant. He was in fact an inspiration to many others around him, including me. Some people wanted to ask Charlie how a life of faith was lived out. Him! A former potential outcast, now a model for godly living.

How did this kind of favored life come about? I wondered this often after he went his relatively merry way.

Andrew and I recently watched a flick on cable that was famous for that favorite of all young kids’ humor, potty scenes. And it pointed out to me that perhaps Charlie’s experiences point to a larger, if not mildly less intense, opportunity for all of us every day. In Big Daddy, (you might remember if you like tender kid stories) Adam Sandler and his potential adoptee son are found early on whizzing on a wall outside a snooty restaurant. This was the kind of poetic justice and maturity level we meet Sandler’s character living out. And the rest of the time, he’s getting dumped by his girlfriend, bored at work, or ridiculed and self-ridiculed at social gatherings. As he gets in touch with his desire to do something with real impact, precipitated through meeting this young boy, he goes through a series of habit-changing choices that bring him at the end of the movie’s lighthearted tenure, to becoming a father, a man who can keep a job, and an inspiration for all around him. In summary, a favored life.

Apparently ancient patriarchs of faith were really into this question of finding a favored life. Person after person of Abraham’s direct descendants, Moses nearing old age, each of the kings and prophets of God were really into this question of favor with God and favor with people. They treated it as if it would make or break their happiness. Even Jesus was described early in his time on earth as “growing in favor with God and people” as if as a person, Jesus needed that favor for his own life to go the way it was meant to.

Many of us might feel as if we’ve tasted of the goodness of a living God, even called forward in a journey of faith unto a lifelong experience of God. And yet so many of us find that we get stuck in life, almost stunted, in growing towards that mature and favored life we want because of failures, habits that aren’t life giving, or a general lack of focus. We repeatedly find ourselves in similar predicaments as before, which seems to ring true the adage by a leadership guru,
Lessons that aren’t learned, are repeated.

So how can we find God’s favor over the long haul? It’s in this spirit of seeking out a favored life, that we’ve talked more in a recent sermon that touches on our church’s ideas about personal growth. You can listen to it online, if you like.
Here’s to growth over a lifetime!