Are you looking for popcorn?

Wow.

I always have to blog every Sunday.  The words start ringing in my ears during the sermon and it's just the fastest ride down Sooner Road that I can take (without speeding in that trap land) to get to the computer.

Steven Furtick finished up his Found Favor series today.  And I can't help but parallel his words with my life.

I walked outside the will of God for a long time.  There were no blessings, and definitely no favor.  The sad part was, I was a Christ follower.  I just thought that I KNEW what was best for me.  That I WAS in control.  Then Lacey invited me to Lifechurch, and my life started drastically changing.

Today, Steven Furtick said that sometimes God's favor doesn't always look like what you expect it to.  The video he used to help us understand what he meant.....  A lady in her car, praying for a good parking spot.  You know that prayer.  "Dear God, just a decent parking spot today...that's all I ask" (as I wheel around East Norman Walmart, for.the.love.), and as you drive, and drive, and drive, and drive, (15 minutes later), you are going, "REALLY, God?  No favor in that."...when you finally pull into the very back of the 1 acre parking lot, and start to make your mile trek to the door, a ball goes sailing by you and a toddler runs by...right into a path of a backing-up car.....   You drop your purse, and you run to that child's aid... and save his life.   You may not have found FAVOR in your parking space, but that child's mother, found FAVOR in your being in the right place at the right time.   That was very powerful for me.

When we found out about Laynie, it would have been very very easy to say, "GOD, WHERE"S THE FAVOR IN THIS?"  but, as a baby CHristian (my girls more christian giants than their mom at this time), we chose to look on God and trust HIS will for our lives.

Steven also said that God will give you the FAVOR you need for the SEASON in your life.  You can need something now that you didn't need 5 years ago.  And the interesting thing about favor....when you slow down and look back at all the times of your life....you can see FAVOR written in most of it.

As Lacey got to share Laynie's story with a staff person at Lifechurch (Yes, there are still a few out there that don't know her story!  Newbies...) we were overwhelmed with seeing "Favor" written all over her life.   You just have to learn how to RECOGNIZE it for what it is.  Open  your eyes to the opportunity of favor, and realize that GREATNESS is right in front of you everyday.

Steven shared that he scored free tickets to a Charlotte Bobcats bball game (They ain't the Thunder, that's for sure), but as he was walking in with his young sons, they spotted the owner of the team walking nearby!  Steven bent down and looked his son in the face and said "Son, right there is the most incredible athlete of his time, and I'm so overwhelmed that you are able to see him for yourself" (talking about Michael Jordan)...and his son looks innocently at him, with extra enthusiasm says, "Ok, can we get some popcorn now?"

Please don't miss the favor being granted to you DAILY, by looking all around looking for your popcorn.  "Oh, that's neat, but I wanted to do that...."

If you would have told me that I was going to be 50 years old, working in a non-profit job, single as can be,  and happy as I've ever been, I would have told you that you were smoking some funny stuff.  THIS wasn't what I had planned for my life.   THIS wasn't what I THOUGHT God wants for me....yet here I am....content and fulfilled as I have ever been in my life.

And that my friends, is FAVOR.  I will receive it, and welcome it....ANY way it comes at me.

Because God is GOOD, all the time.