The clich? suggests that experience is a great teacher. In my history this might be true, but I am a very slow learner! Somehow the lessons of today, no matter how painful and difficult, seem to fade with just a few dawns. The blunt reality of what happens is well documented.
“It’s a school of hard knocks for those who leave God’s path, a dead-end street for those who hate God’s rules.” (Proverbs 15.10)
Yet, I keep going down the same street. How about you?
I am struck by the memories of traveling the past two weeks. In the course of an eight city stop as I circumvented the globe, I found people who share a thirst to know and experience hope. Some can articulate their desires, other merely search in ways that speak far louder than any words. The need for assurance in New York echoes the desire for stability in Portland. The questions of Hong Kong today are on the same path of those trying to make a difference in Singapore. Excitement when given a glimpse of hope in Madras contrasts vividly with the quest for fun under the shimmering trees on a late Saturday night in Bangalore. People are looking for happiness and hope wherever they might find it; the search for most continues unfulfilled.
The God I know offers something different. The challenge for me is the need to let go of what I think I know to experience what God offers. The premise is unique. Concepts like less of me, more of Him; giving up control so that God can be in control; mercy not justice; compassion not pity; unconditional acceptance in the present; and of course hope based on something that is already complete.
God’s rules are simple. Love fully and unconditionally. Walk with compassion and mercy. Exercise faith not self dependence. Live, don’t die. Exercise the hope that comes with the knowledge that God knows everything about you and loves you fully and completely. With God everything is and will be possible!
Experience is one thing, God is everything.
