Knowing or unknowingly we have all been enrolled into God’s University of life experiences! surprised? Some of us have been there for years repeating the same modules while others have graduated from the undergraduate and are now on the post graduate classes. My schoolmates, before you ask me what am smoking let me explain it.
Everyone want a happy successful life. God wants that even the more. He has plans to prosper us in all areas. He has “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future..(Jer 29:11). In context, while this of Jeremiah words were written to the Jews in exile, we also sometimes find ourselves in similar perplexing situations. Like the Jews in exiles the words in Jeremiah29:11 are equally comforting.
I want to share a perspective that has helped me grasp to better details the meaning of the perplexities, the challenges and the difficult circumstances of life that we seem to go through time to time.
Training for a better future
James 1:2-4 ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers, WHENEVER you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’
Life always has its challenges. Call them difficulties, hassles, trials, hardships, setbacks and the like. No one is exempted. At some point , becoming a Christian seems like a subscription of some kind to these life challenges. A disclaimer of our faith could be: God never promised us a challenge-free life this side of Christ’s return. The above verse says ‘whenever you face trials’, not ‘if you face them’. In fact the same bible version says they are ‘of many kinds’ brother. Challenges are guaranteed.
Some trials seems to happen out of the blue: Someone close betrays you, someone steals from you, you’re made redundant, your car is vandalized, your laptop crashes, your enemy is promoted, your neighbor eats your chicken and the like.
2Co 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
While the default feeling is to feel victim, your perspective, interpretation and conclusions to such challenges is vital. Each situation presents an opportunity to learn and grow. It’s God’s intention that we benefit from each challenge that comes our way. And it’s for this learning that I say we are schoolmates in the University of Life Experiences.
Preparation comes before promotion
Many times we don’t yet have what it takes to be in the place where God wants us to be. Part of God’s plan to prosper us is to develop us so that we shall be able to handle and sustain what he brings our way. It’s important to take time in preparation rather than to be advanced and later retrogress because we did not have what it takes.
Heb 12:7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.
1 Peter 1:6-7 ‘For a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.’
1Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.
I get quite startled when I read on newspapers how a leader in government or corporate world gets suspended for a reason or the other. For years they have studied and worked tirelessly to reach the epitome of their carrier, only to lose it because they did not have all what it takes. Proper preparation prevents such catastrophic disappointments.
Preparation through experiences
Every challenging life experience that we go through has two purposes. A plus or a minus.
First, there is something NEEDED in your next level and you do not have it yet. Without it you will not sustain your next level of advancement. The challenging experience is there to help you develop or grow whatever that is.
Second, there is something in you or you have that is NOT NEEDED in your next level of advancement . With it, you will not sustain your next level of advancement. The challenging experience is therefore to help you drop or release whatever that is. This is about dying in order to live. (2Cor 4:10-11).
Challenging Experience can also teach you HOW TO DO somethings or HOW NOT TO.
And how do you know what area of life the challenge is addressing? Where it pains most. That is the area.
For every experience and difficult circumstance that you go through, it’s good to pause and ask “what is it with this experience? What am I supposed to learn? What am I supposed to develop? What do I need to drop or unlearn?.
I remember serving a hot tempered boss who was very hard on me. I never seemed good enough to meet his standards. With prayer I discovered I needed to deal with my own patience and tolerance. I also discovered my acceptance towards other people who did not meet my own standards was quite bad and unchristian. As I endured the outbursts, the scolding, the lecturing and low pay from my boss, God worked on my character. Through prayer I figured that the terrible boss had a very important role is my personal growth. After several years I passed the module and graduated to another level. My season in that organization was over.
Recently I read a book “The tale of three kings”. It’s interesting to see how life experiences prepared David to be a King after God’s heart. Quote different from King Saul and King Absalom who failed miserably.
There are no ‘SUPs’ ‘retakes’ or special exams
In our typical universities, if you miss or fail the module exams, you could sit for supplementary exams (sups), retakes or special exams. But In the University of Life Experience, the learning is experiential and there are no special exams. If you fail you repeat the class.
Suppose I bailed out on God and quit my job because my hot tempered boss? Chances is that I would have met a similar kind of boss in one of the next jobs that I took. That is repeating a class.
Suppose finances become scarce because God wants you to deal with and put some order in that area of your life. Do you bail out and take loan after loan? I promise you things will be worse-off than before.
If you bail out your work place because you can’t stand your colleagues or boss, if you quit because your enemy got promoted and not you. Be sure to expect one thing: The same caliber of people in your life again! Soon or later. Your bad boss could be holding the key to your next level. How you view and associate with him could determine how soon the advancement to the next level happens.
People who bail out of class usually get stuck in one module for many years, dealing with issues they should have dealt with years ago. Others learn to discern the purpose of every challenge and within no time they learn and graduate and move on to other levels.
Paying school fees
In life you can either accept wisdom from others especially those who have gone through similar kind of experience or you can go through the same kind experience only to arrive to the same conclusion. The book of proverbs in the bible is loaded with such wisdom.
The experience might cost you something, yet you will arrive to the same conclusion. And whatever it will cost you is called “School fees”. People who don’t take advise end up paying lots of school fees.
Sometimes back I used a lot of money to set-up a cyber café. Only for thieves to break in and still everything except computer mouse. While this experience developed endurance and perseverance in me, it taught me an important lesson of taking care of the so called “Shogi” or “watchmen”. You ignore them and they will ignore your business or even yourself when danger comes. A friend had advised that with my considerable assets, I should ensure that the watchmen around are my friends, which I ignored. I ended up paying a lot of school fees for my ignorance.
Some years back, a colleague from the office was favored and given the opportunity to lead a great team. He lacked key leadership skills. It was unfortunate that he could not take any of the advice given to him. At the end he failed terribly in his assignment and got demoted. And that is paying school fees. And if he did not learn from that experience, he will continue to pay school fees in his career until gets angry enough to learn.
People who bail out of challenges end up repeating the modules year after year, and that’s a lot of school fees.
James goes on to say: ‘You know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance’ (James 1:3). That’s why, though we pray for deliverance from the pressure, God sometimes delays it. Anyone can survive a five-minute challenge. It’s when it goes on for days, weeks or months that we develop perseverance in trusting God and keeping a thankful attitude to him. There is some challenge we faced as a family for months; we prayed and it stayed put. So don’t complain; instead, let perseverance ‘finish its work’ (James 1:4).
For how long does the challenge lasts? It depends with the module. And it is only the Dean of the Experience Learning who knows. But passing the exam is a must.
The Key to Passing the Exams
The right attitude is the key to passing the life experience modules exams. In the high seas, it’s the set of the sails and not the waves that determined the way the ship sailed. ‘The set of the sails’ is your attitude. You can have exactly the same problem as someone else; the other person can end up in misery and despair while you end up in greater maturity and Christian wholeness—all because of the difference in attitude.
James tells us what your attitude should be when facing challenging circumstances. Instead of grumbling, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ you should ‘consider it pure joy’ (James 1:2)! That doesn’t mean it is pure joy—it’s probably pure frustration. But you must choose to ‘consider’ it that way. It’s a choice to see the problem from a different perspective.
It does not mean pretending you’re enjoying the problem when in fact you’re not. Don’t say, ‘Oh, glory to God, I have lost my job. What a pleasure!’ That would be ridiculous and unreal. What ‘considering it pure joy’ does mean is:
Give thanks to God in the situation: ‘Thank you, Lord that you’re in charge, with my best interests at heart. I could have done without this, but you know what you’re doing and I don’t love you any the less because of this.’
Declaring your intention to benefit from it: ‘Lord, I’m not going to let this get me down. I’m going to use it as an opportunity to grow in my faith and become more mature. Let me benefit as much so as I don’t have to go through such a challenge again.
My experiences have taught me a lot and I’m happy with my learning, if not with what I went through to learn.
Leave a Reply