I recently reread The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, which I highly recommend reading if you have not already done so. She says a lot of great things in her book and I have a lot of things underlined in it, but something new stood out to me as I read it this time. She said, “I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do.” I stopped and considered what she said for a while, even copying it on one of the pieces of paper that are always lying nearby.
A few days later, my daughter and I were studying about Clara Barton’s childhood, during which we read about the things she had learned as a child. Obviously, she learned a great many things but what stuck out to me was the fact that her father had taught her about war and soldiers behavior during war. We also learned about her brother who was badly injured and how at only eleven years old, Clara became his caregiver for the next two years. She successfully nursed him back to health despite the fact that doctors gave little hope for his recovery.
My daughter and I discussed how God had used these childhood experiences to help prepare her for the future He had planned for her, which as most of you likely know, included being a nurse during the Civil War. This led me back to ponder on Corrie’s words which were still lingering in my mind. Both Corrie and Clara’s lives confirmed the fact that God does indeed use our experiences to prepare us for the work He has planned for us. Good or bad, His perfect plan or His allowed plan, He can use it all for “the mysterious and perfect preparation” that we need.
I have lived long enough to realize the truth that God does indeed use our life experiences to train and prepare us for the work He has called us to do. We may not all be called to rescue endangered Jews or nurse soldiers in the midst of a dangerous war, but make no mistake, we all are called to do something. How can we determine what that calling is? May I suggest something? Take an inventory of your life. Look back over your life, carefully consider the experiences you have lived through, and ponder how they may be used for the furtherance of His kingdom.
Carefully consider how the experiences of your life may have been preparing you to do something for Him that only you can do. What might He have been training you for? What do your experiences equip you to be good at? Or let’s look at it another way… because of your experiences, who could you minister to that perhaps someone else might not be able to? Who could you reach that someone else might not be able to? There is something my sweet friend Marianne told me several years ago that has stuck with me. She said, “Give your pain a purpose”.
Those words were a challenge to take my life experiences and use them for God’s glory. Pain hurts. Pain is ugly. But, oh, beloved, I have learned that pain can be turned into something beautiful. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Isaiah 61, especially verse 3, which is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. This is because of its promise to give us “beauty for ashes”. What are ashes? The blackened soot and burnt fragments left after the flames have destroyed. This is what He promises to exchange for beauty. He takes the charred remains and gives us beauty.
Beauty for ashes, what a beautiful promise. Those experiences that burned you, they too, can be used for His kingdom, if you will let Him use them. Those painful, hard experiences can be used for your good and His kingdom. Those dark, dark moments can be used for the work He is calling you to. I am learning that no experience is wasted; He can use them all. My friend, I can’t help but wonder what He plans to do with your life experiences. I can’t help but wonder what ashes there are in your story that He plans to exchange for something beautiful. I can’t help but wonder how He plans to take all the hard things you went through and bring something good out of them.
My beautiful friend, I can’t help but wonder what story He is writing in your life. Knowing our precious Savior, it has to be a good one. He writes the best stories. I don’t know about you, dear heart, but there have been more than a few difficult moments in my story. I confess there is a bit of a tear in my eyes as I stop to consider a few of them. Some things have not been easy to live through, my friend. Some moments have been hard. Life is made up of a myriad of colors, I know, but there have been a lot of dark moments in my story.
And yet… if it were not for the darkness, we would not be able to see the beautiful stars. If it were not for the rain, there would no rainbows. Both are evidence that God can bring beauty out of the unexpected. Honesty forces me to confess that God is indeed using my life’s experiences for His kingdom. It may be a small impact but the fact that you are reading these words, my beautiful friend, tells me that He is using me in some small way. You didn’t know it, precious friend, but you are my inspiration; you are one of the main reasons that I write the words that come to my heart.
I write because I hope that somehow, someway, my words will encourage, inspire, or challenge you. I share my heart, even when it is hard, because I want God to somehow use it for His glory. My life experiences haven’t always been pleasant ones, truth be told, the difficult ones seem to outnumber the good ones, but I’m learning that’s okay. You see; when I tell you that God will see you through, it is because I KNOW He will. When I tell you that God will help you, it is because I KNOW that He will. My experiences give credence to the words I share with you.
I have heard it said that experience is the best teacher and I have to say that I agree. I have learned a lot. (I am embarrassed to say how long it has taken to learn some of the lessons I have learned.) To be perfectly honest, I am still learning. Personally, I think life is meant to be a continuous learning process that doesn’t end until we see our Creator face to face. “Beloved, now we are children of God; And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” 1 John 3:2.
Someday, when this life is over, all the experiences, all the difficulties will be worth it. Until then, I am going to do all I can to use the things He has taught me and the experiences I have gone through for His glory. I am going to do my best to let Him keep “preparing” me for the work He is calling me to do. No matter how big or small, it all can be used for His kingdom. And once again, may I remind you? There is no small thing, no small job in His kingdom. If He has called you to do it, it is important, my friend. And because I love them so, I am going to leave you two of my favorite Tolkien quotes.
“I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keeps the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” – Gandalf (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit)
“’I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’” – Gandalf (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Katrina Douglas
