Two Ways to Examine Your Experiences
两种考验自己经历的方法
Sep 6, 2017
“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith”(2 Corinthians 13:5 NLT).
“你们总要省察自己是否在信仰中生活；你们要考验自己。除非你们经不起考验，你们自己岂不应该知道有耶稣基督在你们里面吗？”（林后13：5和修）
An unexamined experience is worthless.
一段没有经过考验的经历是没有意义的。
There are people who are 50 years old who haven’t lived 50 years. They’ve lived one year 50 times. They’re still making the same mistakes, because they never stop and extract the lessons. They never stop to ask, “What happened in this last year, and what can I do differently so that I am living life better?”
有一些50岁的人，他们并没有活50年。他们只是把一年活了50次而已。他们仍然犯着同样的错误，因为他们从来不停下来从中学习功课。他们从不停下来问，“这一年发生了什么，我可以做哪些不一样的事情使我活得更好？”
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13:5,“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith”(NLT).
圣经在林后13：5说：“你们总要省察自己是否在信仰中生活；你们要考验自己。除非你们经不起考验，你们自己岂不应该知道有耶稣基督在你们里面吗？”（和修）
What does that mean? It means you take some time to review the experiences of your life, and you look for two things:
这意味着什么？这意味着你要用一些时间去重新回顾一下你的人生，并且你要找这两件事：
Look for benefits. What did you really enjoy in your life? Don’t just say, “I really enjoyed that job.” Ask, “What was it about that job that I really loved?” Don’t just say, “I really liked that class.” Ask, “What exactly about that class did I like? Why was it so fulfilling to me?” You’ll get little clues about where you should be headed with your life.
寻找收益。你真的享受你的人生吗？不要说：“我真的享受那份工作。”问一下：“那个工作真的是我所爱的吗？”不要说：“我真的喜欢上课。”问一下：“那个课程真的是我喜欢的吗？为什么它使我满足？”你将会从你之前的生活中得到一些线索。
Look for patterns. Particularly, you want to look for patterns in your failure. Because when you fail, you tend to do it the same way every time. So you look and say, “Where have I failed in the past? What patterns do I keep repeating?” You don’t look at it to beat yourself up but because you want to be different. Those who ignore the mistakes of their past are likely to repeat them. This was the problem with the Israelites. Their trip to the Promised Land should have only taken a few weeks, not 40 years. But they refused to learn from their experiences and God’s tests. Each failed test meant one more lap around the desert.
寻找模板。你一定要从你的失败中寻找模板。因为当你失败时，你往往每次做了相同的事情。所以你要说：“我过去从哪里失败？哪些事情是我一直在重复做的？”你不要把它看做是战胜你的，因为你想要不一样。忽视自己的错误才是真正打败我们的。这就是以色列人的问题所在。他们本应该在几周之内进入应许之地，但是却用了40年。但是他们拒绝从上帝的考验和自己的经历总学习。每一次的跌倒都意味着在旷野多绕一圈。
The Bible says in Job 32:7,“The longer you live, the wiser you become”(The Message). That verse is a possibility, not a promise. I know a lot of people who are old and dumb. Wisdom does not automatically come with age. Maturity is when you extract meaning from the everyday experiences of life.
圣经在约伯记32：7说：“年长的当先说话；寿高的当以智慧教导人。”（和修）这节经文只是一个建议，不是绝对的。我知道一些又老又没有智慧的人。智慧不会自动随着年龄增长而加增。当你从每天的生活经历中学到什么，那就是成熟。
Talk It Over
讨论问题
What are some experiences in the last year that you can learn from?
你可以从去年的经历中学到什么？
How have you seen failure mature you spiritually, emotionally, and mentally?
你体会过失败能使你的身心灵成熟吗？
What would you consider the evidence of maturity and wisdom in your life?
你会在你的生活中考虑智慧和成熟的证据吗？
