“Discovering God’s Story for Your Life”
Dear writer, I hope you had a beautiful week and began to recognize the divine encounters God has used to shape your voice! This week, we’re going to take a look at the broader experiences that God leverages in our lives to develop our unique message and expression.
You see, writer, beyond life’s relationships and divine encounters, there are often particular events or situations that God uses to frame the way we see the world. And while there is nothing new under the sun, God uniquely combines our individual life experiences so that we will encounter and understand Him in a way that will never be quite the same as any other person.
But before we jump in, let’s take a look at some others whose singular experiences shaped their perspective and message from God…
Experiences in History
St. Teresa of Avila is a good example of someone whose life experiences dramatically shaped her unique message and voice. Not too long after entering a Carmelite monastery as a young woman to become a nun, Teresa became dangerously ill and nearly died. During that time, she began to develop a habit of mental prayer and meditation that formed the foundation of much of her intimate walk with the Lord and led to her work of reformation and to her books that have encouraged thousands to a deeper life in of prayer and oneness with the Lord.
You see, writer, sometimes even our struggles and difficulties serve as key experiences in forming our unique expression. Without Teresa’s nearly deadly illness, would she have understood the sweetness of meditative prayer and the closeness of a walk with the Lord that fueled her desire for personal holiness and began the reformation movement to restore wholehearted devotion to prayer and to Christ to the Catholic church?
Experiences in the Bible
David was a great example of a young man with experiences that dramatically shaped him. As a young shepherd, David boldly faced down a lion and a bear on two separate occasions. Both animals were much larger than he was. In both fights, David needed God to help him defeat his enemy and protect his father’s sheep. When David faced Goliath, Goliath was simply enemy number three, who was too big for him but not too big for his God.
You see, writer, often life’s experiences shape not just the way we view the world but the way we view God and His interactions with us. And just like David, these unique experiences allow us not only to understand Him better, but to demonstrate who He is to others, too. Just as David’s confidence in God allowed God to demonstrate His power and faithfulness to the entire nation of Israel.
Experiences in Life
When I was just a toddler, my father and my uncle took me on a camping trip. Over the course of several days, we tented, hiked, and explored. Though I remember little of the event itself due to my age, it doesn’t surprise me that as an adult I found myself longing for and being comfortable with a simplicity of life that is usually craved by much more hardy outdoorsman types than myself. It also doesn’t surprise me that many of my stories take place out-of-doors, in the woods, or in rural or wilderness settings and many draw deeply on metaphors found in nature.
Those images still speak powerfully to me today and have begun to speak to others as well, as my pursuit of simplicity not only allowed me to minister in developing nations with ease but also freed others like me to enter the simple and fruitful Kingdom life God intended for them. And I do believe some of these seeds were planted in that week with my dad and uncle as I explored the wildness of northern Maine with the wide-open mind of a child.
Experiences in Your Life
You see, writer, some experiences we have we were too young to remember fully, but they were formative in the way we see the world, God, and others. And this is another reason words are so powerful, especially in the lives of young people around us. God uses our experience of life like a picture frame—that set up our gird for how se see and express ourselves. Though the picture inside may shift and change, the frame itself tends to remain similar or the same.
It’s important in our life’s experiences, especially the challenging ones, that we sometimes “go back” and ask the Lord to help us understand the things we experienced according to the truth. Not according to lies. Because here’s the thing. The enemy can come in and interpret our experiences for us if we let him. Just like he did for Adam and Eve in the garden. But here’s the real deal…
All of life is Father-filtered. Both the good and the bad. Even life’s most tragic experiences are things He knew He could work a good from far greater than we could ever imagine. Let me show you…
- For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11
- No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:37-39
- Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. – Psalm 139:16
You see, writer, not all of life’s experiences were God’s perfect will for us. But what has been allowed is only what He knows He can transform into a greater glory than if it had never happened. Because here’s the lovely thing…
If you noticed, both Teresa and David were thrown into experiences much bigger than themselves. Similarly, God used my experience to prepare me to pursue a life that it was bigger than myself. Often God allows life experiences that He knows will cause us to see and experience Himself and His love that we would never have encountered in any other way. And when we see Him through our experiences for who He truly is, we can’t help but begin to walk in a whole new way with Him, and glimpses of His light and life begin to show through us.
Where to Start with Your Experiences
So do you want to begin exploring the experiences God has and is using to grow your voice? Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Brainstorm. Make a list of life’s most memorable events, both the highs and lows. I recommend using post-it for this and using one color for positive experiences and another color for negative experiences. Once you do begin to organize them chronologically as best you can.
- Identify “Hinge” Points. Once you have your experiences organized, note which event served as “hinge points” in your life: moment where life was different afterwards. Often these “hinge points” serve to mark new chapters in life.
- Look for Themes. Now that your life has been sorted into “chapters,” prayerfully see if you can identify any themes in the chapters or in God’s overarching story. Often discovering themes that God’s woven into your life is a powerful indicator of how God has been developing your voice and message and for whom.
- Ask God about the Heartaches. For those experiences that seem only bad, I encourage you to set aside time to prayerfully seek the Lord to see where He was in those moments, what He was doing, and how He might be leveraging the enemy’s attack for your ultimate benefit. It’s also a good idea to seek Godly counsel from mature trustworthy believers for some of those difficult areas.
Because here’s the thing. As Einstein once said, “God does not play dice with the universe.” And He does not play dice with your life. Both the good and bad events were either intentionally orchestrated or divinely allowed as tools He knew He could use beyond any purpose of the enemy – not just to bring you to Himself but to bring you into a fullness of life and experience with Him and into purposes and fruitfulness far beyond anything you could imagine.
Just like Teresa illness drew her deeper into prayer and that sparked not just her own vibrant walk with God but also great reformation to the church. Just like David’s experience prepared him to boldly fight the Lord’s battles in full confidence and to demonstrate God’s power to a wavering nation. Just like my experience camping sowed seeds of simplicity that freed me to pursue my dream and to help others pursue theirs.
So, I encourage you today to prayerfully take stock of some of life’s key experiences. Then, if they were difficult, ask God to reveal His truth. Where He was and what He was doing in each and how He brought you through. Then, I encourage you to embrace the true story He’s writing of your life, and as you do, you will begin to more easily recognize how He’s using life’s experiences to reveal His glory in and through you.
#glory #trust #refining #EveryWriterWriting
