(We are taking a brief break from our previous entries dealing with issues/misunderstandings and focusing on the current believer for a moment)
Congratulations! You, and two of your friends, have won an all expenses paid, 18 month full membership to the swankiest resort/club/gym in the world: "Chez 'You Cannot Afford This' ". Your membership includes all the "fixings" including a personal - so personal, you are their only client - trainer/instructor who will target your specific problem areas with specialized, one of a kind training and lifestyle routines.
Pretty cool, eh? Oh yeah.
So you begin your membership with a review/interview conducted by your specialized trainer, who runs you through your paces a bit, looks you over, takes more measurements than you may be comfortable with and asks questions that seem to never end. By the time it is all over, they have a very personalized routine created especially for you. It targets that weak mid-section of yours as well as your overwhelming weakness when it comes to chocolate covered bacon. It also includes other areas that are not near so troublesome and yes, it even includes work on those areas of lifestyle and training that are not that bad at all and some even quite good.
Remember, though, that this prize is not merely for you, but also for two of your friends. And they also have personal trainers who run them through the same, lengthy process. As luck would have it, one of them has completely different problem areas as yours, the other is actually pretty close to your own areas. Obviously, the one with different needs will have a completely different routine set for them. What of the one who is strikingly similar to you? You check over their routine and see that it is completely different from your own. Obviously, either their trainer made a mistake or yours did, but someone somewhere has made a massive error. Concerned for both of you, you confront your trainer.
After you finish your ranting and stop to catch your breath (ranting can be so tiring after all), your instructor smiles calmy at you and begins to make things a bit clearer for you. They explain, that while you both have weak mid-sections and an addiction to chocolate covered pork products, you are actually quite different. First off, they are of the opposite sex as you. They also have different responsibilities in their life and different schedules in some very key areas. They also have different bodies to your own, including an old injury to their abdominal muscles which limits them to very specific set of excersises, otherwise they would be badly injured. No, their routine is not flawed or wrong anymore than yours is. It was designed for them, just as yours was designed for you.
Well, that makes sense, does it not and I am fairly certain we can all see the logic in that reasoning and method.
So why, pray tell, do we seem to think that just because something God is doing within that works for us, has to work for everyone? Why do we think that, just because we know that someone has very similar issues in their life to our own, that God should be dealing with them in the same way as He does with us? Why do we feel the need to judge those other people because they are not reacting the same way as we did? After all, we are all different people, are we not. We all have different backgrounds, unbringings, memories, thoughts, feeelings, relationships and reactions to those relationships, hurts, joys and scars. And even though something may show itself the same way as it does for you, the root cause may be completely different. The only thing we actually all share is the desperate need to be reconnected to our Creator.
Who could possibly be a better trainer/instructor/teacher than God? He knows everything about us, even things we actually do not know about ourselves. He even knows we are going before we do, or what we are going to ask for before we utter the words. So does it not make sense that He would deal with each one of us in very specific ways? That even if two people have the exact same issue (trust, for example), He would lead them through it completely differently and at different speeds, using different methods, people and situations. An earthly trainer would do that and they pale by comparission to our God.
Now then, that is not to say that there is no value in sharing information or testimonies between people, whether that be one on one, in a group setting, from the pulpit or via the written word or any other means you can think of. Frequently, God chooses to use other people to reach other people (He is a great dad, always letting us kids help Him at work), but even then, how those people are reached, in what area and the intensity, as well as their responses, may differ drastically from each other.
Our Father deals with each one of as unique individuals, because, we are. We would do well to remember that for a couple of reasons. One, when we look at other people, not to judge their reactions to teaching, leading or anything else. Their reaction is a personal thing between them and God, just as ours is. Neither is right or wrong, only different. Another reason is a wonderful one indeed. The God of the universe, Master and Lord of all creation, the Alpha and Omega, considers us each worth His personal time and attention. That is pretty cool.
I do want to note, however, that we are talking about God dealing with each of us within - our characters and hearts - and not a misunderstanding of theology or truth. No other God other than Him means no other God other than Him, for example.
I do not know what God is currently doing in your life or how He is dealing with you. I do know though, that He knows what He is doing, even if you do not. Take heart in that knowledge. You are, after all, in good (the Best) hands.
