Learning by experience is a powerful tool and my daughter Leila proved it right. This summer, on hot beach day, our parents, Aline and I were laying in the sun talking how "salty" the Red Sea is...you feel it sticking to your skin. Over hearing our discussion, Leila suddenly left the sand castle she was building and turned to us sharing this following simple fact "You know, The sea is made of Water and Salt..This is why it is salty..Papi showed it to me last year at home, where we poured in salt into water, it just disappeared but turned it into Sea water. So this is how they make it!".....turned her head and went back to her Sand Castle! I was just surprised that she kept this simple experience stored in the back of her head feeling so proud, leaving totally her play time, and sharing it in such a simple confident way. This scene confirmed a statement beautifully written about the concept of "experience" that you can hear an idea one hundred times and fail to make it a piece of who you are until you actually experience it, it rises from being just a CONCEPT to a TRUTH to you.
That is why I prefer the term relationship over the term religion. In a relationship, you need to go through a state of experiencing someone to build what you can call a relationship. No relation exists without experience, and our Book is filled with events in which people had the blessing to Experience Jesus and His love. Out of these I can never forget the Samaritan woman at the well...She has done what Leila have demonstrated perfectly. She met Him, experienced His encounter, The Messiah turned from a concept to Truth, and went to her village sharing Her story..She even left her most dear item she carried, she left her Jar at the well and went back without earthly water:
"Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did....Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” (John 4:28-29, 39 NIV)
فترَكَتِ المَرأةُ جَرَّتَها ومَضَتْ إلَى المدينةِ وقالَتْ للنّاسِ: «هَلُمّوا انظُروا إنسانًا قالَ لي كُلَّ ما فعَلتُ.
فآمَنَ بهِ مِنْ تِلكَ المدينةِ كثيرونَ مِنَ السّامِريّينَ بسَبَبِ كلامِ المَرأةِ الّتي كانتْ تشهَدُ أنَّهُ: «قالَ لي كُلَّ ما فعَلتُ » (4 يوحَنا:28-29, 39 )
فترَكَتِ المَرأةُ جَرَّتَها ومَضَتْ إلَى المدينةِ وقالَتْ للنّاسِ: «هَلُمّوا انظُروا إنسانًا قالَ لي كُلَّ ما فعَلتُ.
فآمَنَ بهِ مِنْ تِلكَ المدينةِ كثيرونَ مِنَ السّامِريّينَ بسَبَبِ كلامِ المَرأةِ الّتي كانتْ تشهَدُ أنَّهُ: «قالَ لي كُلَّ ما فعَلتُ » (4 يوحَنا:28-29, 39 )
Dear Lord, I do not want a RELIGION...I want an Experience-filled life with you, a life in which I encounter your presence, and hear your whispers, see your eyes watching over, and know that you are there closer than my breath to me. I know that this relationship I seek is the only way I will let go of my earthly breakable Jar, seeking Your ever flowing well of water, your Holy Spirit as you said. I pray for a relationship that shall make me strong and faithful in times of trial and tests, in times of standing on shacking knees...only then My life's experience with you will linger in my head and Raise me up to stand not just on concepts but on a Solid truth..on Solid grounds. In Jesus name, Amen!
Seek an experience, a relationship not a just religion my friends!
