Experience Is a Gift… But It Can Become a Lid

I was doing something the other day — which is pastoral code for something I’ve been doing for 30 years.

Thirty.
Long enough to qualify for the Been There, Done That, Got the T-Shirt… and Probably the Mug club.

Then someone started telling me something about it.

And instantly — instantly — my inner voice kicked in:
“Ha. That’s cute. I’ve been doing this since before you knew this was a thing.”

Outwardly? Calm. Polite. Nodding like a bobblehead.
Inwardly? Arms crossed. Ears closed. Pride standing at the door with a clipboard saying, “No new information past this point.”

Because pride has a funny way of showing up after a few decades —
It doesn’t announce itself.
It just quietly says, “I already know.”

And that’s when God whispered — not shouted, not scolded — just whispered:
“Listen. Be teachable.”

Which, frankly, is annoying… because it’s gentle.
And correct.

So I listened.

And to my great spiritual inconvenience, I learned something.
A new perspective.
A better approach.
A reminder that doing something for 30 years doesn’t mean you’re doing it best — it just means you’ve been doing it long.

Turns out, I might be a little… how shall I say this pastorally…
An old fogey.

Ha.

---

Experience Is a Gift — But It Can Become a Lid

Experience is powerful.
Experience is valuable.
Experience can save you from making dumb mistakes.

But experience can also quietly turn into a ceiling.

Experience says:

• “I’ve seen this before.”

• “That won’t work.”

• “We tried that in ’97.”

• “That’s just another trend.”

At some point, experience stops being a teacher and starts being a boncer.

It decides what ideas get in — and what gets turned away at the door.

Here’s the danger:

The very thing that once helped us grow can become the thing that stops us from growing.

And I realized…

“I didn’t stop growing because I lacked information — I stopped growing because I stopped listening.”

---

Pride: The Silent Lid-Installer

Pride doesn’t usually say, “I’m better than you.”
It says, “I don’t need to listen.”

And that’s how pride causes hearing loss.

Not total deafness — just selective deafness.
We still hear affirmation.
We still hear agreement.
We just stop hearing correction, insight, or anything that challenges our settled conclusions.

Pride creates learning disabilities.
It convinces seasoned leaders that curiosity is optional and humility is for beginners.

But Scripture says:

“The wise listen and add to their learning.”

Notice it doesn’t say, “The wise explain why they already know.”

---

Why This Hits Hard

Let’s be honest — if you’ve been doing something successfully for 20 or 30 years, the temptation is real:

• Systems become sacred

• Methods become moral

• Familiar becomes faithful

And before long, we confuse comfort with wisdom.

Experience should give us depth, not defensiveness.

Maturity should produce openness, not cynicism.

Cynicism is just pride that’s been disappointed a few times.

---

Experience should widen your perspective, not narrow it.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t retire us from learning.

The moment you think you’ve arrived is usually when growth leaves the building.

---

The Grace in God’s Whisper

What I love is that God didn’t shame me.
He didn’t say, “You old fogey.”
He just said, “Listen.”

Because God isn’t trying to embarrass us — He’s trying to expand us.

And when we listen, the lid lifts.
The ceiling moves.
Growth resumes.

---

Closing Prayer

Lord, thank You for the gift of experience — and forgive us for the times we turn it into a lid.

Heal our pride-induced hearing loss.
Help us stay curious, soft-hearted, and teachable — even when we’ve got the t-shirt.

Because we don’t want to just finish well —
We want to keep growing until the finish.

The Best Is Yet to Come, with the Lid off,

Rev. John Roberts