Lessons

Yesterday a friend and I were talking about a man who is 95, and wants to go home to be with his Lord, Jesus.  But he is in good health and has lived a few years more than he expected to.  My friend said “I guess he has to live until he has learned all his lessons.  There must be a few more for him to learn.” After this conversation the Holy Spirit quickened me, and I could hear “Life isn’t just about learning lessons.” God wants a relationship with us other than our Teacher.

If we think God is all about teaching us stuff, and that this is the most important reason for us to live on this earth, then we will either become blunted by the pain of life, or we will become bitter.  The first set of people, believing they need to learn from the bad things that happen, need intellectual compensation.  The lessons they learn anesthetizes them, and numbs them to subsequent bad happenings.  It is almost as if they have to prove how much they can take, all in the name of being a good Christian.

The second group of people are bitter because they want victory and change, and yet more trials come into their lives.  Because they believe they should learn lessons from these trials, they feel like a manipulated pawn piece in the chess game of life, always facing awful circumstances that are supposed to be good for them. They don’t know whether to pray for improvement, or for God’s grace to submit to the pain.

But there is a third option, and that is called “victory.” God wants to inspire you and I with a plan for overcoming. There is no set answer for any given trial.  God has personal answers for us.  Some sufferings actually accomplish something, and some do not.  I once read about a man who became stuck in his vehicle after a blizzard blocked the road.  It was a windy road in the country and no one came by.  As the days passed he became filled with thoughts about his life being over and wrote a farewell note to his family.  When a search party finally found him, he had passed away.  If he would have gotten out of his truck he would have seen that just around the bend the sun hit the road, melting all the snow and making passage, at least by foot, possible.  Because the man had gotten stuck in the shadowed part of the road, the snow remained high and he never knew he could walk away.

At times the cold darkness of our trials cause us to get stuck.  We may think there is no apparent lesson to learn, and yet we do not pray to overcome.  I believe now more than ever that God has a plan for our lives which includes more than lessons.  Let us seek Him today for His ultimate best in our lives so that we might taste the glory of victory.  Amen.