I am totally an object learner. My brain works well with analogies and learns from hands-on scenarios. And of course, God knows this.
Here’s a little insight into how God takes a seemingly mundane happening and teaches me something unrelated to the original scenario.
At training camp we participated in the exciting and educational underground church similation game. My role was a farmer seeking out my family and church without being caught by the secret police. Well, seeing as I take playing a role very seriously (ha, ha) I spent the majority of my time avoiding the secret police by traipsing through the woods. Now, we were warned ahead of time that the surrounding woods contained both poison ivy and poison oak. Being from northern Michigan I was familiar with how to identify both, and was not too concerned about getting either. I knew that in the past I had run-ins with poison ivy and never contracted a rash or anything, so I thought I was all set.
Anyway, while hiding in the woods, belly down on the ground, I glanced over to discover that I was in fact lying in poison oak. Awesome! The game proceeded for a while longer, but I jumped in the shower and washed all my clothes when we were finished. I assumed that should take care of any exposure to poison oak, and I thought I was right for about the next week. It wasn’t until I was home for about five days that I started to notice a bit of a rash developing on my shins and calves. As it turns out, I was affected by the exposure. So here I am, weeks after training camp still treating and recovering from my poison oak mishap. Now, the obvious lesson is “wear pants in the woods and don’t lay in poison oak”, but I think there is another lesson to be learned here. This is a great representation of sin in my life. I may be warned ahead of time, and think I’ll be able to avoid it, but then look around to discover I’m right in the middle of it. Then in an attempt to recover I try to wash it away and forget about it. The truth is that I will reap what I sow eventually. Even when I have recognized sin, and learned how to treat it in order to remove it from my life, it will always be a process. Who knew a little poison oak had so much to teach?
