“Karen’s Notes!
Insights from a Glory-Bound Lady”

Selected Notes
Volume 7 Number 29 Post #325 “Our Experiences Are Never Wasted”
July 17, 2024

Celebrate with me the 325th posting of a brief clip from “Karen’s Notes!” The very first post of her notes came years and years ago. Ever since that first clip, I have gladly posted something from her notes for those who read them every week. I am honored to do this.
I’ve been looking at Karen’s notes that she taught at a ladies’ retreat a number of years ago. This retreat was designed and advertised by the host church for ladies who were hurting, undergoing trials or hardships, or even walking through grief. At one point in the conference Karen referred to a specific verse and shared from her heart the lessons she was still learning on the road with her precious Refiner.

Let me share the verse, and then I’ll explain how different “Karen’s Notes” will be today.

The verse is Job 23:10 which reads, “But He knows the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

Karen then shared her testimony concerning our four-year-old little boy Jeffrey who underwent many open-heart surgeries, and on his last and final surgery went Home to be with the Lord. She was very honest about her heart-shattering experience but also about how the Lord Himself had demonstrated the truth of Job 23:10 over and over again.

What an impact apparently that made at that conference. Here is a tiny part of a packet of thank you notes that she received. Karen received many thank you notes. I’ve shared a few with you before. Please allow me to share a short part of this one.

Part of a thank you note Karen received after this retreat: You gave us all much encouragement. It definitely was a blessing to be part of this retreat with you. I had a long heart-to-heart talk with my husband last night. It was the first time that we could both say what we felt. Suddenly he opened up and I could honestly tell him how I felt. He actually listened to me and understood. He said it was because he had remembered hearing about Jeffrey on the local radio stations.

Let me be quick to add this: Karen would NEVER want me to share something in such a way as to glorify her. But I share this to demonstrate the reality of 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

I have come to understand that instead of asking God WHY He allowed me to experience this, I am learning to rely on His help and to ask Him WHO will He bring across my path that will relate and to whom I can minister.

Friends, your experiences are never wasted and may just indeed be the very thing that can be used of the Lord to bring changes in the lives of people you meet.