the musings of this nigerian gal

“Experience is the best teacher.”

I grew up hearing those words a lot and not for a good purpose. It was always a warning. Something that follows your desire to “go see for myself” despite the many advice your elder has given you.

“Experience is the best teacher.”

Those words almost made me wish to never have any experience, at least not the one that would make me fit into the box the statement has created.

What I didn’t know is that experience can be a good teacher.

What I wasn’t made to understand is that understanding is best gotten through experience.

When I was much younger — as in elementary school younger — there were words that were too big for me to pronounce, and even bigger for me to understand. So I’ll go to my sisters and ask them to explain. And more often than not, they begin by saying, “how do I explain this…”

They say this not because they do not perfectly understand the word enough to explain it. It was more of a case of, “how can I take the vast experience of this word and compress it into a few-words definition?”

This is why the perfect way to learn a language is to experience it. Through books. Through movies. Through interactions.

Because experience is the best teacher.

This is why the definition of faith is a whole chapter given to the experiences of people.

Because experience is the best teacher.

With God.

With man.

With ministry.

With relationships.

This is probably why they always tell you not to be afraid of failure. Because you, as sure as hell, are going to flop.

Many people shy away from new experiences — the unknown — because past experiences has shown that what lay beyond the horizon of what is known are messy lanes that would have to be learned by the ear, flying off the seats of your pants. And God, is it scary or what.

But the life that God has called us to live is one of adventure. An adventure that simply hearing other people’s experience can never measure up to.

Perhaps this is why God calls us to be more childlike. They may fall, but you can bet your last dollar that they are going to get up and get back in.

We were never created up be on the outside looking in. We are created to join in on the fun.

There will be tears. There will be heartbreaks. But there will also be laughter. There will also be victories. And those victories make the pain worth it.