Experience Matters

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15 esv

Change… it’s inevitable in life. Nothing stays the same. Through our own choices or the choices of others, our life in this world is always in motion. When that change is something we don’t have experience with, the wise go and find someone who has experienced something similar. We ply them with questions: What are the possibilities? What are my options? What could go right, or wrong? And, so often… why? Why now?

For the believer who truly seeks after the heart of His Savior, we have an endless source of experience. The gospels encapsulate the highs and lows that Christ faced while He walked this earth, the New Testament gives up countless examples of how people dealt, both wisely and unwisely, with all sorts of situations. The Old Testament, too is replete with wins and losses as people throughout history chose to live their lives seeking God’s will or going their own way.

In Psalm 143, we see David lamenting his trials, moving to meditating on the good works of the Lord, and then asking for leadership from God: Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! Psalm 143:10

In His goodness, God gave me a life that taught me to seek advice regularly. As head-strong as I have always been, my life has often put me in situations where my lack of knowledge and experience was evident, and I became acquainted at a fairly early age with stopping to ask advice from those who had walked my path before me. I was raised in a family of entrepreneurs. They did the hard stuff that few do. They built businesses, they took risks. I was the benficiary of that hard work. When I showed an interest in the family business, I went in oblivious to everything involved. I could only see the benefits of running a family business. My parents came and went from their business seemingly as they pleased. They took mornings off to work in their gardens or care for their aging parents. What it took me years to learn was that they worked harder than most people could ever understand. As I began to realize the work that is involved in running a business, I remembered my Dad leaving at night to go back to the plant, or my Mom sitting at the kitchen table working on books all hours of the night. There are benefits, and they are incredible, but there is an unimaginable cost as well.

Fortunately, my parents and my uncle were patient with me. They taught me the cost of ownership. They taught me that others wouldn’t always understand the struggle. They taught me how to lead. My dad in particular shared one thought with me over and over as I learned the business: “Never ask anyone to do a job you’re not willing to do yourself.” In short, yes, there is power in ownership, but without a workforce that is willing to follow my lead, I will always be ineffective. I learned to see that for them to follow my lead, they need to know that I understand what they’re doing and what they’re going through.

When economic downturns happened in the early 2000’s, I panicked, wondering how we would make it through, as I watched the profit margin decrease to nearly nothing. My parents simply said, “It’s happened before. We tighten up and weather the storm.” They never faltered, they told stories of other times in nearly 40 years of business they had struggled. Their confidence bolstered mine through the darkest of times… their strength helped me to face the unknown with assurance.

The parallels of those experiences that I see now in my Christian life are amazing. When our Lord calls to us in our sin, we reach out for Him both in desperation, and in hope of the benefits of a life as a joint-heir with Him. Submitting to Him for salvation, is a total surrender of ourselves to His safe care. But, discipleship is a step farther. Salvation is free, an act of unmerited favor for those who repent and believe. Discipleship happens by abiding in Christ, by choosing daily to die to our own fleshly desires and to bend our carnal will to what He asks of us. When a christian grows in Christ, we begin to realize that there is most definitely a cost to discipleship.

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:23-26

There are a number of things that Jesus told us to expect as His followers, and few of them are good times and prosperity. We are to expect to be ignored, misunderstood, challenged, and even persecuted. The lives of His apostles were filled with amazing blessings along with incredible challenges. They were able to recall the lessons they learned when they walked with Jesus, and were well aquainted with the Holy Spirit and His leadership.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

We, too, will have challenges in this life, we know that, but we have access to the same God that the apostles followed. Although, we haven’t been blessed to walk with him in human form, He is still aquainted with every sort of trial and temptation that we can come up against and He understands our problems. We can go to him, much like David did in the Psalms, pouring out our fears and frustrations to Him and trusting that He understands and that the Holy Spirit will both remind us of His great and mighty works in our lives, and of the joy of our time walking closely with Him.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5

Perhaps, most importantly, we need to realize that we can’t wait to develop our relationship with our Lord until we are in need, or under attack. We are to spend our time learning to understand who He is and what He offers when things are going well with us. And then, when the enemy attacks or bad things happen to us, we know Him intimately already. We don’t have to search for Him, and spend time seeking a right relationship with Him. Lean into Him now, get to know Him every day, spending time in His Word and in prayer and worship, and then when that inevitable need for extra comfort arrives, We are rushing into familiar arms, and we know without a shadow of a doubt that they are strong and sturdy, despite our heaviness.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 63:3-4