Do we have to learn everything by experience?

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:11
New American Standard Bible (NASB)

It was late in the evening as I was returning from a visit with my sister in law in Boise Idaho. I was driving back on a route which would take us through a majestic mountain pass on the way to Yellowstone National Park. In the car with me were my three youngest daughters Catharina, Celia and Grace. I was pulling a trailer that held a baby grand piano.

As we were coming to the start of a mountainous area I saw a sign with a blinking light that said, “When flashing do not continue if pulling a trailer.” I ignored the sign. If I turned around I would have had to go an extra five hours to get through the area.

In a few miles a light snow began to fall. A few more miles and another warning sign. I had a slight thought that perhaps I ought to follow its advice but rationalized it away.

About a half an hour later I was on a mountain road with hairpin turns, a thousand foot cliff on one side and so narrow two cars could barely get past each other. The snow was coming down quickly and my traction was beginning to fail.

I frantically began to look for a place to turn around but because of the trailer it was impossible. Finally the car stopped and the tires were just spinning. I could no longer go up the mountain.

We stopped just short of a blind turn. It was very dark by now. As I sat their praying what to do several trucks came around the turn and they barely missed hitting me. I realized that even if I just sat there I might be hit by a car or truck coming around that bend and still slide off the cliff.

Because of its weight I could not take the trailer off the car though by that point I would gladly have let the piano fall down the cliff to save my girls. It would have taken three men or the professional floor jack i had at home to lift the tongue off the ball. With the icy conditions if I had been able to get it off I might easily have gone down the cliff with it.

I got out of the car to see if I could back up. There was a small area a little further down the road that I could possibly back the trailer into. The road had no guard rails. I was sure if I began to slide the trailer and the car would fall off the mountain but with the snow getting deeper and the threat of being hit if I stayed where I was I knew I had to do something.

I carefully backed up to the area and turned the trailer as far as I thought I could go safely into the space. I then turned my car wheels are far as possible and tried to make the turn. We started to slide backwards. I was crying out with all my heart for Jesus to save us as I pushed the pedal to the floor. The car began to slide sideways down the road and just when I was sure that all was lost it snapped around so that we were across both lanes headed down the mountain.

As I went down that mountain as slowly as I could every second was spent in telling God how sorry I was that I had not listened to Him and how thankful I was that He had saved us though I did not deserve it.

Had I heard a supernatural word from Him? No. Had He given me a vision? No. Had He really been speaking? He was screaming in alarm at my foolishness. He was speaking through a flashing warning sign.

The thought that gripped me so completely that night and thousands of times since whenever its memory returns was that I would have killed my children by my pride. I thought of the grief that would have filled the most precious person in my life’s heart – my sweetheart who bore them. Hurting her like no other person on the planet could have ever done, though I loved her with my life. All because of my pride.

Matthew 4:5-7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’;
and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”

When I drove past that sign I thought somehow I was different. I was the “special case.” Though I would have never said it exactly like that – since my heart is so easily deceived around pride issues – I was probably thinking, God always takes care of me so no worries.

He has taken wonderful care of me. But like Jesus I am still subject to the law of gravity. Had Jesus cast himself down from that place he would have died and we would have all eternally perished with him.

How I wish that I could share the truth I learned so devastatingly that night with every human on the planet. But few listen.

When I chose to go up that mountain after the signs had told me not to I tempted God. Perhaps I lived only to tell the story of how pride in the most deceptive of forms – thinking we are the “special case” because of our relationship with God -- can destroy us.

One of the most powerful influencers of my early life in God was Keith Green. Our fellowship had even sent one of our young people to work with his ministry. She eventually became his wife Melody’s personal secretary.

One day he took a missionary family, his pilot and two of his children on a short plane ride to view the ministry's property from the air. None of them returned. After only a few minutes the plane stalled and fell like a stone to a wooded area and burst into flames.

You can read on Wikipaedia, "the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash was caused by the pilot allowing the aircraft to be loaded beyond its operating limitations."

The court records also show that:
"... the insurance carrier required Burmeister (the pilot) to log 1,045 hrs of flying time, attend a Cessna ground and flight training course, as well as log 15 hours in a Cessna 414 (C-414) prior to acting as the PIC (pilot in control) of the leased aircraft. The NTSB record shows he failed to accomplish all of these requirements, with disastrous results. With pilot and eleven passengers, the aircraft was overloaded by an estimated 445 pounds (202 kg), and the location of the center of gravity was found to be 4.5 inches (110 mm) beyond the maximum aft limit. Combined with an air temperature of 90 degrees, the C-414 could do little but struggle into the air, and once airborne was left virtually uncontrollable. These factors prevented the aircraft from ever attaining sufficient altitude, and it crashed into trees less than a mile from the airport."

Like I did on that night so long ago, Keith’s pilot failed to follow correct protocol for flying his aircraft. We will never know exactly why he did so. But someone on that plane thought that they were the special case. He had to have known that the plane could not safely fly with that load. His training would have taught him that. His knowledge of the plane would have taught him that. But whether he felt so desirous to please Keith or simply thought that God would see him as the “special case” he flew a plane that could not fly. He killed himself and eleven other people.

Some will say it was a sovereign act of God. They will try to rationalize away the stark reality that even after salvation we remain frail creatures of dust instead of God’s superheroes.

It was not an act of God. It was an act of man-- a man, just like me. We did not learn well the lessons of history. The difference is only that I and my girls came down from my high place of pride alive. He and his passengers paid the ultimate price for his pride.

I have often said since then that there is more than one unfailing word from God. The Bible is the place where we can still fully hear the voice of God on Earth today. It is completely reliable when properly interpreted. But there are at least two other fully trustworthy ways God speaks --Creation and History.

Why were there signs on the side of the road when I went up my mountain of pride?

They were there because others had learned, perhaps through giving their own lives, that the danger was too great to go up under certain conditions.

The lights were flashing because someone cared enough to turn them on when the weather was turning bad. They followed the lessons that had been given through creation and history.

I did not.

I often have people say to me that God never speaks to them. But it is not true.

What they mean is that they don’t hear voices. I really doubt that as well. I imagine they often hear the voice of conscience.

But I expect they really mean is they want some multimedia experience that is beyond doubt. And yet God has given just that in the lives of those who have gone before down the same paths we follow.

Andy Stanley has written a book called the “Principle of the Path.” He correctly points out that when you follow a certain path it will take you where it takes everyone no matter who you are or what your intentions are.

The reason I love this thought is that it speaks to our delusion that somehow because of our “special relationship” with God we are the "special case."

Great men and women of God have fallen terribly because they thought they were “special” and could go down paths God said no one was to go down.

Consider this, not even the son of God who it was directly prophesied about that angels would protect him was the "special case." How do we think that we can be?

I can tell you from what I learned on one of the worst night of my life….. we can think we are the "special case" because of PRIDE.

It was not the swashbuckling pride of an arrogant rebel. It was the totally deceptive barely visible pride of thinking the path will not take me where it has taken everyone else who has gone down it.

It is true that experience is the best teacher but to have to learn everything by experience most likely means we will die and kill others in the process.

As the scripture we read at the first says the past mistakes or successes of others are there for us to see and use to learn God's way for us.

The whole history of others driving up my mountain of pride and the Word of God was there for me to see and respond to on a sign on the side of the road. I did not need to experience it to be saved from tragedy. I just needed to take serious the warning given.

Since that time I have understood the principle of the path – the path I choose will take me the same place it takes everyone else for good or for ill.

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana