Today I get to meet with FSU’s new president, Dr. Richard McCullough. The big question on my mind? Will we find favor with him?
The meeting is a meeting of the Interfaith Council, the gathered and specifically approved religious and faith-based groups at Florida State University. Thankfully we have been granted an audience with President McCullough and we’re excited to get to know him and what it will be like to work with him. We have our questions, of course. The previous president had been open about his Christian faith, but we haven’t seen that in this new president (although he simply may not be ‘wearing it on his sleeve’). If he is not a Christian, then favor may be more difficult to attain. We will find out.
This question brings up the third way in which Jesus increased or “sprouted” in Luke 2:52. Luke tells us that He grew in “wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and man.” My meeting this morning is an example of hopefully growing in favor with man, but how do we grow in favor with God? And after all, which is more difficult? Finding favor with God or man?
Somewhat counterintuitively, we confess that finding favor with God is much more difficult than finding favor with man. At first we don’t think of it this way, but that is only because we know Jesus. Without Jesus, finding favor with God is so much more difficult than favor with man. It is, in fact, impossible. It is only through Jesus that we gain favor with God, only through His invitation and connection do we get to a point where God shows us favor.
But that isn’t to say that favor with man is just easy. Finding favor with people is difficult – especially with people who may not have our same backgrounds or ideas. Still, Jesus found favor with those kind of people as well. Jesus didn’t limit his circle to the “sure bets” of the people that He knew He would find easy favor with – He went and found favor in and with people that were different from Him. We too, can grow in favor with humans – all sorts of them: university presidents and convenience store clerks and doctors and groundskeepers.
And God even provides us an easy way to begin our journey of finding favor with men. That is simply to remember that we have favor with Him. If we remember that we have favor with God, a favor that we couldn’t ever deserve, then we can show favor to others and that will in turn, gain favor. If we remember that we have favor with God, it will make us humble enough to make every meeting about the other people in the room, because we will be secure in the favor shown to us. May you seek man’s favor this week (but not too much) and may you remember that you have the favor of God which you have not deserved but has been given to you by Jesus Christ.