Experiences are amazing. They make something feel refreshed, revived, new, and alive. But if we only live for the experiences we will find we are not really that much alive at all. Living is something that is done in between every experience. Change doesn't usually come overnight or all at once. So, to say an experience has changed your life would be an incorrect statement. Our lives are changed by the choices we make and the actions we take everyday. If it takes an experience to keep you going, you may not actually be living. I was reading a book called "Lord Change Me" and throughout the course of this book the author talks about the process of the change taking place in her life. God had been working on her for over 14 months. Throughout those 14 agonizing months she had many amazing experiences. One particular experience led her to the writing of another book called "When Women Pray". Though these experiences were many and powerful, was it solely in them in which she had found she'd changed? No. God had been working on her outside of every experience and encounter. The words she spoke struck something in me; coming into agreement with what I had already been thinking and feeling. "The changes come, however, not when God speaks but when we obey what He has told us. We are changed only when we apply to our lives what He said."
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My little cousin, Jayla, went on a field trip with her school to the Hamburger Farm. While she was there they came to a part of the tour where they were sharing some interesting facts about onions. They told the children that if you put your onions in the freezer prior to cutting them, you would not cry like you normally would while chopping them. Most of the kids probably thought, "wow what an interesting fact" and went on about their merry way. But that’s not how Jayla responded.
She's loves facts and science. So much so that her little sister’s motto became "Let me see if you are lying". These girls wanna know the truth! So, Jayla wanted to know if freezing an onion actually did keep you from crying while cutting it. What did she do when she got home? She went and grabbed the whole bag of onions and stuck them in the freezer. (I can just see her little sister staring that onion in the face with a cute smirk and the words “let me see if you are lying” dripping from her mouth as it went into the freezer.) When it came time for my aunt to start cooking dinner she wondered where all of the onions had run off to; she knew she had a brand new bag somewhere but couldn't seem to find them. Finally, after buying one or two more bags of disappearing onions she figured something was up. Where are all the onions going? Is there some kind of onion convention being held inside a hidden cabinet somewhere? Finally my aunt says out loud the thought that had been plaguing her, "I thought I just bought a bag of onions!" Then Jayla pipes up, "Mom I put them in the freezer for you so you wouldn't cry when you cut them."
Not only was this a display of faith--taking someone at their word--but a perfect display of experience versus change. She fully enjoyed the experience of the hamburger farm, but she didn't just leave it at that--an experience. There was change produced by applying what she had heard and learned that day.
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Change itself does not come from hearing a word from God, change comes when we apply what God has told us to our lives. So, to say our entire lives have been changed from an experience would not be an accurate statement if we do not let that experience produce change in our lives by applying what was received. As I have previously mentioned in my blog 'Religion Is Not Working', I had many AMAZING experiences as a child in the church. The problem was not with the experiences themselves but with the lack of change in my life AFTER the experience.
If we aren't careful we can develop a habit of living from experience to experience without actually producing the fruits of change in our lives. Change happens over lengthened periods of time with God, living daily in communion with him through his Word and prayer. When people come back from retreats and conferences professing that their lives are forever changed I genuinely look forward to seeing this change in their lives. Sometimes they are! There will be people who come back and begin to apply what they've heard and been taught by the Lord in these amazing experiences. Then there will be others who come back (much like myself) and live the same life without producing any kind of real change because they fail to apply the knowledge they have received. And you will see those same people living from conference to conference, convention to convention over the years still the same unchanged people.
I was one of those people until I got ahold of relationship with Christ and allowed him to begin the daily process of change in my heart. I am in no way talking down on experiences. Like I said, they are amazing and we all need them; they keep us encouraged and unified. BUT don't just live from experience to experience like I did. If you truly want to see your life changed, take the things you've gleaned from your experiences and apply them to your life. Let God begin the real "Change Me Lord" process in your life everyday. You will no longer have to convince people that your life has been changed, but others will be able to testify of the change they see in you! I've heard it put this way "Wisdom is knowledge applied." Wisdom: the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment. (Oxford Dictionaries) It's all a process. Get the experience, gain the knowledge, start applying; then change will come!
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