The Journey of Life: Experience Before Labels
At the end of our first three days of January’s ONE Journey, one of the men pulled me aside and said, “Now I understand why it was hard to put this into words! Some things you just have to experience—I mean that in a really good way.” Isn’t it true of the most worthwhile things in life? Experience far outweighs the words, labels and descriptions we have for those experiences.
I tasked our team with helping me describe the ONE Journey to you and here’s what I heard:
”I’m calling it a growth accelerator because that’s what happened to me!”
”It was without a doubt the most satisfying work experience I have EVER had. ”
”I was born for this.”
”I think we tasted a bit of heaven; it was kind of like the lines between earth and heaven got blurred or suspended and it was like we all experienced part of the essential nature of God, truly partaking together of His essence.”
“The three spouses who came at the other spouse’s request were authentically happy they came!”
“A few people wanted to do it again as soon as possible and were ready to tell their closest friends to join the February group.”
“14 was the perfect number of people for the journey!”
”To see God unlocking our unique design and His beauty for our lives was simply incredible.”
“A deep dive into the 7 days of creation as a practical model for living a connected life was new, refreshing, and encouraging.”
”I never knew that God gave me a core flow but seeing it, and now embracing it, changes everything!”
”Everyone needs this! How did I get here first?”
”Understanding how much it’s cost me to live from a false version of myself gives me the courage to live as who God actually made me to be. I’m sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.”
The ONE Journey is definitely best experienced and we hope you can all join us whether in person or online in the coming year!
A key of understanding how real growth happens is this phrase: experience before label.
Think about the way you entered the world. You were born into a vibrant world of brand new experiences with very few, if any, “labels” for it. In the first year of life you likely experienced thousands of things and you began learning the words or labels for hundreds of those experiences even if you didn’t speak them yet.
Sky, bird, love, chair, yes, no, mama, book, ball, friend.
The labels we use for what we experience do not limit us from continuing to explore and discover more of the world, they support it. I learned the word for friend at a young age and I am still learning exactly what it is to be a friend and to have one. “Mama” has new meaning for me now than it ever could have when I was a kid.
Now imagine you didn’t actually experience one of those things, you only had been taught that it existed. You could study all about it, but without the experience of it, it would never be quite the same. “Labels” without “experiences” just don’t work well when it comes to growth. Label before experience can be limiting as well. Once experience enters in, labels serve the discovery and growth of our expanding life experience. Our experiences, like it or not, have completely shaped us and they will continue to do so.
We build this concept into everything we do at ONE. It’s why we are so excited about our mission of making oneness with God practical for daily life. Many of us have read John 17 and heard the word oneness, but we may not really know what “oneness” is. Yet as we experience hearing God’s voice together on a Zoom call each week—the interconnectedness we share teaches us far more than reading a great book could have. The experience we share will actually form a better learning foundation for when we decide to pick up that book full of words and ideas. It’s our joy and honor to extend this invitation to you: come experience the ONE Journey with us.
After his first experience, Zach called it the “growth accelerator!”
I wonder what words you will use to describe it?