Experience

A good friend of mine sent this to me and asked me to write a blog post about it. Now, don't go getting ideas about post requests or anything, but I decided to make his dreams come true and hence this post.

Here's the quote:

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn." ~C. S. Lewis

Here's my response:

First off, I love the quote and really agree with it. I'm not sure how much experience I have in my almost 27 years, but I do have some under my belt, and I hope I have learned from it. There certainly have been times that stick out in my mind and I know exactly what I learned from that experience. And I'm thankful for those times. Yet I think why experience is the most brutal of teachers is because it is relentless. I have found that if I don't learn something from my first experience, I will find the same lesson creeping back up in another experience.  While it is brutal, I also think it is the best teacher.  What better way is there to learn? 

From a Biblical view, a few things come to mind:

1 Chronicles 20:28
Then David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.

We are told throughout scripture, old and new testament, that God will not leave us or forsake us. I think a part of that includes teaching us...and teaching us over and over again until we have learned.

Psalm 66:10
For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.

God tests us over and over again, to make us pure and more like Jesus. He continuously gives us experiences to learn from and to help us mature into the God-fearing people we were created to be.

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

I think a really good teacher gives you something to go on, yet requries you to figure certain things out on your own. God is perfect in all things and so He is the perfect, the best, teacher. The Lord allows us to know certain things now, to keep us learning and grasping for more of Him; He teaches us along the way. And when we are able to see Him in heaven, He will fully be revealed and we'll know about Him in full.

That's what I've god. Friend, how'd I do?