Molded by Experiences

HS #33  2018.4.3

Molded by Experiences 

Perhaps the cleverest sermon I ever heard was April 1, 1988 while attending Hope College’s Good Friday service. Jerry VanHeest, Hope’s chaplain, offered a meditation on I Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”  As he proceeded with his thoughts, I eventually caught on that he had chosen a text that perfectly tied together April Fools Day and Good Friday. Very clever indeed. 

Maybe only the Apostle Paul could have written such a statement. He had lived both sides – dramatically. For a good portion of his life, he ravaged the Christian church believing the Christian message was not only foolish but dangerous. Then after an experience he vividly described as an encounter with the risen Christ, his point of view – and as a result, his life mission - did a complete turnabout. 

This all happened even though Paul’s values and personality remained essentially the same. He was a gung-ho, Type A personality before his conversion, and he certainly was after it. He loved and wanted to serve God before, and just as much afterwards. 

Paul’s story shows us that life experiences are often central to our beliefs and consequently our life’s trajectory. 

A few years back, Hope College psychology professor David Myers gave a talk on homosexuality. Taking comments after the talk, a middle-aged man – bleached crew-cut and bronze from working in the sun – stood up and repudiated all that Myers had just said. Homosexuality was wrong – plain and simple. As he sat down, another man of similar description stood up, “Last year I would have said exactly the same. But last winter my son told me he is gay - and I love my son.” 

Dick Cheney provides another example. He is solidly conservative on most every issue except the LGBT one. No coincidence that his daughter is a lesbian.  So life experiences certainly seem to influence our life perspective. 

Or is it the other way around? Is it our perspective that colors our experiences?

There’s a joke about a shoe salesman who was sent to a remote tribe in the rainforest. He wrote back, “No market here – no one wears shoes.” Another salesman was sent, who immediately telegrammed, “Unlimited market here – No one has shoes!” 

As a real counterpart, I remember once hearing a moderator interview two Nobel Laureate economists. He asked them to predict the world economy over the next 5-10 years. One gave a rosy forecast, the other’s was bleak. The moderator was perplexed, “You are both experts and you both see the same data – why the difference?” Rather sheepishly, they explained that one was an optimist and the other a pessimist. 

For a Biblical example, see John 12: 27-29. Some heard angel voices, others heard thunder. 

Same experiences, but different interpretations. What causes the difference? Does seeing cause believing, or does believing cause seeing? Do experiences make us, or do we determine our experiences?

C.S. Lewis thought the former. His book “Miracles” begins “What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience.” 

My father agreed, but with a twist. I remember his sermon, “Butter and Eggs” in which he noted that when heated, the first melts while the other hardens. He reasoned by analogy that a person’s character determines how one reacts to experience. So while the experience (heat) affects the individual, it’s the individual who determines what the effect is. (Immanuel Kant’s epistemology is similar:  Experiences happen to us, but WHAT we experience depends on us.) 

The PBS documentary “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero” – made a year after 9/11, seems to support this view. The two-hour special included interviews of a dozen people who had lost loved ones in the attack.  Some had a severely damaged faith in God as a result; others experienced an enhanced belief and experience of God. 

My own take on the matter is informed by the recent forest fires out west. These fires are affected by the existing weather – dry wind versus rain makes all the difference. But meteorologists are also finding that large fires actually influence and create their own weather.  Our brains likely have similar feedback systems. Like M.C. Escher’s illustration of two hands drawing each other, our experiences mold us as we in turn interpret and mold our experiences. 

Mindboggling, and leaves me wondering:  If I had been with Paul, what would I have seen?