Experience

I’ve heard it, and I’m sure you have, also: Experience is the best teacher. I hate to break it to you, but … experience … has taught me that it ain’t so! I have noticed this previously, but this time, it struck me forcibly because I have been led into facing head-on a few things that experience has taught me.

It started when I was alerted again to the fact that I was literally afraid of sitting down at my piano keyboard. I wasn’t, of course, afraid the keyboard would hurt me in some way. I was afraid that I would be disappointed by what would take place; afraid that I would attempt to play, and no interesting musical sequences would roll off my fingertips.

Why was I afraid of that? Experience had taught me to be afraid. For more than two years, dull and boring has been my experience, and I am a pretty quick learner. The problem is that I learn lies pretty nearly as quickly as I learn the truth, and the truth is that for over two years, I have rarely been de-stressed enough to flow creatively in any area.

As I attempted to determine whether I really should be attempting to play the keyboard, or if I should just leave that to others, I had to face my next fear. Experience—that lying little monster—had taught me that there wasn’t much point in producing music, anyway, since no one was interested in hearing it. The truth is that few people have even heard my music—I’d be astonished if the number was as high as five hundred—and several of them have expressed a liking for it.

Experience, you see, tends to not take all factors into account. Moses’ experience taught him that he couldn’t deliver his people from Egypt. The reality was that he had made his original and unsuccessful attempt in his own time, his own strength, and his own way. Rarely, however, do we learn this from our experience. Instead of saying, "I have learned to not push ahead of God’s timing," we are more inclined to say, "I have learned not to try that," (the particular action we took) "again."

If we look at our experience through the lens of what God says, it can be quite useful. I can view my experience in the light of God’s word and learn … not to mess around with trying to please people, since my help comes from the Lord … not to try to be the same as everyone else, since God has given me a unique place in this world … that God’s voice brings peace, regardless of my circumstances … that my own works—outside of those done in direct obedience to God—accomplish nothing but frustration.

Experience doesn’t always lie, it merely doesn’t give us the whole truth. If you could learn this one thing: before you learn from your experience, find out what God says about it.

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