THE WELL-LIVED, BLESSED LIFE

2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21; Romans 11:13-36; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 20:7

““Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. No one was sorry when he died. They buried him in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery."

"Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.”

“’Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him! If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him!’ Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb and led me to trust you at my mother’s breast. 
I was thrust into your arms at my birth. You have been my God from the moment I was born.”

One of my hidden and most concerning paranoias is that I will die and no one will come to the funeral. How desolate a thought that is! I remember my Grandma’s funeral. She was a saint. Everyone who knew her loved her, although she, like all of us, had her moments. But mainly, Grandma just had the misfortune to out live her peers. When the last of her bridge group passed, it was pretty clear she would soon follow. Bless her heart, she was ready. But that did not make the funeral any easier. Too small to even merit a funeral chapel service, we had her memorial in one of the conference rooms at the nursing home. It was almost embarrassing. But as I sang The Lord’s Prayer for the staff and family who had come to pay respects, I felt a strange peace and power, as well as a welcoming that was all for Grandma. I got it then. The well-lived, blessed life does not require either an audience or acknowledgement. Its rewards lie elsewhere. Grandma understood that, I am sure. But her grandson needed a bit of educating. And as all good education does, this lead to another question.

What does a well-lived, blessed life look like? The more I observe, the more I become convinced most of us don’t really understand the concept at all. We struggle until we stress over the idea of fulfillment, of personal realization. But insecure creatures that we are, we can be looking right at the life God intended for us and not even recognize it. Worse, of course, we refuse to accept it when we see it in front of us. If we aren’t careful, we waste a lot of time, energy and regret thinking about – and maybe even longing for – the life we never had. Usually, it’s a life that was never intended for us.

Frequently, such thoughts arise in the context of marriage. More than one soul has spent more counterproductive time thinking about the person they could have/should have married than the one they swore to love and cherish for life. Jesus was right: that kind of thinking is adultery. But perhaps even more significantly, it ruins the life we have based on an idyllic fantasy that never existed. The same thing can happen when we regret our jobs or our families or focus on pretty much anything that distracts us from the life we have now. I’ve been blessed. There has never been a single day in the last almost thirty years when I have questioned or regretted my choice of mate or the three wonderful kids we have been allowed to share with God over the years. But the job thing… now that’s another question entirely. Theater, psychiatry or theology, I couldn’t make up my mind. So I put them together, shook them up in a proverbial bag and “lawyer” came out. A strange combination it has been at times, too. Nor was it ever a secret that it was a compromise between the three things I really wanted to do, but for a variety of reasons, did not commit myself to accomplish. Almost since deciding on a legal career, I have wondered what God will say at the pearly gates. Will He welcome me as the fulfillment of the life He planned, or just graciously share His joy while He shakes His mighty head in some disappointment that I did not choose His path?

Considering this today (possibly, for the first time clearly), I realize what a stupid thing it is to think about at all. No wonder Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt for being unable to move forward without looking back! We worship a Master who “makes ALL things work to good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” The inescapable conclusion is that the particulars of our lives’ choices (the do/do nots) are of much less import than the purpose for which we pursue and carry them out. I do not know why it has taken 52 years to figure this out. Maybe it has something to do with maturity, with having passed through more than a few of life’s fires and come out the other side different but intact. Maybe I’m just tired of thinking so hard. Whatever the cause, I have finally realized I am right where I am supposed to be – in the love and grace of the Father. Whether I have made the “right” or “wrong” choices, He has made them work. The litigation I do has elements of all three of my original choices in it. Jury presentations, depositions and defense strategies, even in the civil context, all have major theatrical and personal counseling components, and I’ll freely admit to having worked Christ into more than one client conversation. More than that, though, as I have purposed my life in an attempt to match my Creator’s purpose for me, opportunities to do theater, counseling and especially teach and share the Gospel have eclipsed even what I dreamed at the start.

Grandma understood. The well-lived life is nothing more than allowing Christ to have His way with us. If we let Him, He will have it and carry it out in us almost in spite of our choices. We need not worry about being unfulfilled or missing our calling if we are truly focused on His purpose. He knows the plans He has for us. He knows the paths we will choose. Wonderfully, miraculously, He has the vision, grace and power to bring them together for those who love Him above all. What, me worry? Not about career choices, anyway; at least, not any more. The Spirit put me right where He wants me, in spite of myself.