Greg Gilbert - Favor: Finding Life at the Center of Gods Affection

Y ears ago, one of my best friends and I took a vacation to Spain. It was just a few months before I was going to be married, so this was what my friend insisted on calling (to my wifes continuing disgust) my last hurrah. We did a ton of planning and settled pretty quickly on the general approach of the trip. We were going to rent a car and strike out on an epic ten-day road trip through sunny Spain. Beyond that, however, we didnt really know what we were going to do. In fact, right up to the moment we boarded the plane, we werent sure if we were going to go east, which would have taken us to the beaches and party towns of Spain, or west to the mountains and ultimately through Portugal. In the end, about halfway through the flight, we decided to go west. Mountains, hiking, and history it was!

There are so many things I remember fondly about that trip. We explored cathedrals and nunneries, stayed a night in the famous Alhambra, watched swords being made in Toledo, hiked the Picos de Europa, and ate like kings. But I think the most memorable part of the trip was our stay right in the shadow of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. The city of Santiago is stunningly beautiful, with ancient architecture surrounding quaint streets and the sounds and smells of the sea drifting through the air. And right at the very center of the city, overlooking a massive stone courtyard, is the cathedral itself. Ill never forget what it looked like the night we arrivedseagulls careening around its spires and the sun setting behind it in a brilliant sea-refracted crimson. I think I have never seen anything quite like it.

My friend and I wandered around the courtyard for a time, reading the tourist signs and brushing past the hushed crowds. Eventually, we walked up the front steps of the cathedral, and I saw something there that continues to this day to break my heart. There on the top step of the cathedral, carved through the centuries, were two deep knee prints worn into the stone from thousands and perhaps even millions of people bowing to kiss the feet of a statue of St. James as they arrived.

These days many people put their knees in those stone indentations mostly as a tourist experience, kneeling down and turning back with a goofy smile and jazz hands so someone can snap a picture. But historically speaking, the Cathedral of Santiago isnt a tourist stop at all. For well over a thousand years, it has been the terminus of a pilgrimage route called the Way of St. James. Millions of people have traveled that road through the centuries, sometimes for hundreds of miles and at great expense. For those people, the act of putting their knees in those granite indentations isnt an opportunity for a good photo op. Its a heartfelt, sometimes anguished cry for God to look down from heaven, recognize their great act of penance, and show them his favor.

Of course, thats not unique to Santiago de Compostela. Thats how most of the world believes Gods favor is to be hadby winning it, by earning it. From the woman in New York desperately trying to have an attitude of gratitude so Gods favor will keep flowing into her life, to the man in Mecca marching around the great black Kaaba because this is what Allah requires of him, to the good Christian in Dallas going to church on Sunday in an effort to balance out what went wrong on Saturdaythe human heart simply seems bent toward the belief that if God is going to show us favor, were going to have to pay our dues one way or another.

Earned Favor

Why is that? Why do we so naturally gravitate toward the desire to pay our way through, to earn whatever it is that we have? I think it must have at least something to do with the fact that we simply like the feeling of accomplishment, of being able to take creditone way or anotherfor what we have. That includes, of course, the favor of God. In a funny way, those knee prints on the step of the Cathedral of Santiago are monuments to human accomplishment as much as they are symbols of humility. After all, those pilgrims made it . Over hundreds of miles, through rain and danger and difficulty, they did it. They won. They accomplished. They beat the Way of St. James. And maybe now God will take notice.