One thing I may have realized for the first time this evening was a result of the following train of thought: we as humans are continually having new experiences. Feeling ways and thinking thoughts we haven't before. These strike us as very new and different, and indeed they are. As an unintended result of our recognition of just how new and different these experiences are, we tend to somehow come to the belief that these experiences are unique to ourselves in an important way...that is, I am the only person who has ever experienced quite this type of sensation. This is bogus logic. There is absolutely no logical connection between having an entirely new and unexpected experience, and the reality of whether or not someone else has experienced the same thing. Isn't it rather likely that they simply haven't gotten around to experiencing many of the things we have, while we're just now getting around to experiencing what they already have?
As Christians, we rightly understand life to be a progression. Often we allow ourselves to believe that if we have had certain experiences that others haven't, we have necessarily progressed farther than they. While this seems to make sense, I suggest that it does not. I will endeavor (regardless of how much wiser and better I stupidly think myself to be) to actually believe those who say that they have undergone the experience I am undergoing, and receive their wisdom with joy.
2 comments:
things are never exactly the same. and no one else can really understand exactly how you feel. but that's why our Father becomes so much more precious in times of sorrow. I pray He will reveal His heart of comfort and peace to you.
I think about this a lot. This is why it's important to read old books. It's not just that you're not the first to have such and such an idea, but our modern culture typically isn't either.
Also, I'm not sure that we tend to think of life as a progression because we're Christians or because we're Westerners.
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