Experiences Impact Who We Are

I enjoy watching people. I like to observe people in their regular surroundings and try to figure who they are and how they got to be who they are. I really enjoy sitting down over a cup of coffee with someone I've just met and listening to their story. It amazes me how people adapt to different things in their life and those circumstances and adaptations mold who they are today. Being a minister, folks tend to shift to stories of their journey of faith. That's great, but I like to hear the other stuff too. Whether we want to admit it or not, everything we experience in life effects who we are. There is a group that I would have loved to observe and sit down over a cup of coffee and talk to. I would have loved to watch the calling and molding of the apostles.

Scripture paints a good picture of the apostles. As a matter of fact scripture really gives us all we need to know who they were, what they were doing, and why. I believe the gospel writers, guided by the Holy Spirit, paint a very accurate picture, but my curiosity wants to know more about them. Have you ever wondered what was going through Peter's mind just before Jesus called him? Have you ever thought about Paul's education as a Pharisee and being a self-described "Pharisee's pharisee" and how it effected and molded his life in Christ?

Jesus calls us from all walks of life. He seeks all mankind so that all mankind can return to a right relationship with God. Have you ever noticed that Jesus didn't tell the disciples to forget everything they knew? We know that when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior the old man passes away and a new man is birthed, but the God given talents and abilities remain the same. The situations we have lived through in our lives that God has either orchestrated or allowed have brought us to the place where we find ourselves at that very moment, all for His purposes. Often these purposes are to understand what someone else is experiencing and to be able to minister to them right where they are at. In other words, you don't have to fall out of a tree to know that it hurts, but you do have to fall out of a tree to know how much it hurts.

It is no wonder that God chose to use Paul, who studied under great religious minds, to bear witness to the scriptures and to provide the life application as it relates to a life in Christ. Compare this to having a former Internal Revenue Service auditor be your representative during an audit of your annual income tax return. Paul not only had the knowledge obtained through study, but also that personal experience on the road to Damascus that he could personally testify about. Wouldn't you love to sit down with Paul and ask him about that experience? Wouldn't you like to hear Paul describe what it was like growing up and learning in the shadow of the priests and the Sanhedrin and how that shaped him?

Peter was called by Jesus twice. Once at the beginning and once after he walked away from Christ in his time of need. Both times he was out fishing. It was his profession and what he knew. I don't think there is any coincidence that we often, when feeling as though we have failed the Lord, go back to what we knew before. It's comfortable. There is a scene in a great movie The Princess Bride where one of the characters does just that. Everything is crumbling around him so he returns back to where it all began. Here's where we do not want to get caught up in what we know. We need to rely on the guidance, inspiration, and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to keep us moving closer to Christ and His ultimate purpose for our life. We can't just go back to what we know. Wouldn't you like to ask Peter, "What were you thinking at that moment?"

Thomas was skeptical of the resurrection, until he came face to face with the resurrected Jesus. He allowed the natural of who he was and had always been cloud his judgement for a moment. Then Christ brought clarity even in Thomas' doubt. What caused Thomas to be so doubtful?

In all, we have what the Lord knows we need to follow Him. We have our own personal conversion experiences which are the result of a personal revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We also all have a life before Christ which, albeit dead and gone, had an impact on who we are today. Living a christian life in the context of a modern world means that we can take our lives and experiences and couple those with what we read and know from scripture and the revelation we receive from the Holy Spirit and help point others around us to Christ. The talents and gifts God created us with are to continue to be used. Instead of being an electrician living for selfish purposes, you can be an electrician living for God's purposes. Instead of being a school teacher for selfish purposes, you can be a school teacher for God's purposes. These things allow us to effectively communicate in word and deed the plan Christ has for all of us in the realm where God intended us. We can't get too wrapped up in the past or past experiences, all past things are gone, we are new creations once accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, but our past can help us make sense of what we experience in Christ and how we can minister to others.