experiences to remember

7th February, Tuesday
they say these things mould us, they shape us, they change the way we percieve people, things and life in general. they come in all shapes and sizes, different forms and full of suprises. some are good some are bad, some are happy others sad. experiences are part and parcel of life. when you go out to look for a job as a fresh grad, they ask you if you have working experience. when you talk to someone and comfort them they ask you how can you understand what i'm going through unless you have experienced it yourself. when you move into a new phase in life you always ask for advice from people who've been there before, they will share with you their experience. but are all experiences good for you? i'm pretty sure you know of people who've gone through bad experiences and come out worse off from them.

is it possible that two different people go through the same experience and yet come out of it differently? sure! take the example of lance armstrong, stricken with cancer yet in the following years after not only did he recover, he went on to become one of the greatest cyclists ever. but for every lance armstrong there are others who are unable to come to terms with their illness and the quality of their lives deteriorates even after they recover.

in the christian circle, we talk about God using our experiences for his glory and that is true. how better to encourage someone who lost a child through miscarriage if you yourself have had the same experience and testify that God has given you strength to see you through? but again, the question arises, can the same situation happen to 2 different people and have a different outcome? sure! one person may come to terms with the tragedy and still be thankful to God, the other person may become bitter and resentful. that is where the bible, the word of God helps us to understand and come to terms with the sometimes cruel experiences that come our way. it is like an electronic scanner, the kind that you see in supermarkets. unless you have a good and proper scanner you can't really decipher the data that the bar code on the item contains. without the scanner, the bar code looks like a mumble jumble of lines. in the same way, without the wisdom and revelation in the bible, we look at life and it just looks like a mumble jumbled mess of random events. the moment we take up the scanner, the bar code begins to have meaning and so when we look at the bible we then begin to realise that life on earth is more than a bunch of random events placed together but rather an intricately woven piece of art and the picture is one of love, God's love for mankind.

John 3:16 "for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son(Jesus), that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."