No Wasted Experiences

Our pastor has frequently said that God doesn’t waste experiences.  I have lived long enough at this point, that I can acknowledge the wisdom of that statement.  

It is a little over 38 years ago that we gave birth to our little son who was still born.  Who can imagine a more devastating circumstance?  We suffered and sorrowed and wept, crying buckets of tears.  BUT…God was faithful and present through it all.  He comforted us through His great compassion and tender mercies.  His Word became precious to us as we struggled to survive and find joy in our deep distress.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5:  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.  For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”

God has given us great empathy and understanding for others who lose a baby or child.  Recently a young woman in our church became pregnant after years of trying.  She was elated, so excited about the baby – believing God had answered their prayers.  But the ultrasound showed lots of abnormalities in the baby and doctors told her and her husband that if the baby lived the whole nine months, it probably would die as soon as it was born.  My heart went out to this precious couple.  Even though there are differences in our situation, there is enough of a similarity that I can feel her pain.

God gave me the privilege of sharing our story with her and how God met us with His compassion and tenderness even in our pain.  You see, our experience was not wasted.  It was a special honor to be able to minister to this young woman with the comfort which God had comforted me.

Another friend recently went house hunting.  She found the “perfect” one for her and made application.  However, imagine her horror when the credit report came back that her credit was shot.  She was shocked because she had no idea.  As she investigated this, she discovered that the money she sent her daughter for her college expenses was all spent by this daughter on traveling to exotic places around the world.  Her money was all gone, but not only that, she was in unbelievable debt – all brought on by her own daughter. 

I spoke to this woman on Sunday and she had a glowing testimony of how good God was in helping her to find a cheaper apartment in which to live.  She was so effusive in how much she loved God and how he was her “all in all.”  Wow!  God didn’t waste this horrific experience in her life, but used it to turn her eyes and heart to Him.

What we think is absolute horror and destruction often turns out to be of great benefit and opportunity for growth and maturity and deeper love and dependence on our great God.

And now Andy and I are facing a difficult disease.  I hope this experience is also not wasted.  I have learned, and continue to learn, that I am not in control of my life.  My life is in God’s hands.  Am I willing for Him to do with me as he wills?  That is the question.  Sometimes it takes a while to let go of my feeble clutching onto what I perceive is the good life and happy endings.  I struggle and chafe and spend too much time worrying and stressing.  But in the end, the only way to experience the peace of God is to open my hands and let Him do as He wills.  

I can trust God's authority over my life.  I certainly can do nothing to control what happens.  But I daily need His grace and enabling power to embrace what He brings.