a drop of water

December 3rd, 2006

Spiritual Mentoring — 1 Kings 19, 2 Kings 2

Before I get to far, Jenn and I decided to call Coast Vineyard our home church. It had been a trying few months, and we had originally intended to come alongside our friends and help them find a church that they could call home, but God had other plans. I personally love the community that I am finding at Coast. It’s a place where I know I can find prayerful brothers and sisters to face this life’s trials and joys alongside.

But now, to this past week’s message. It was titled “Spiritual Mentoring,” which brings to mind molding, guiding, but most importantly influence. I always like to say, contrary to the American dream, the only destiny we have control over is the destiny of those people around you. I like to qualify that with the idea that one can do no good unless it is God doing it through them. Pastor Jamie mentioned this when he said, “it’s not about what we do but what God does through us.” He talked about three aspects of spiritual mentoring: the calling to mentor, the cost of mentoring, and the passing of the mantle in mentoring. My favorite sub points of each section were, life sharing is the primary call in mentoring, commitment is an essential cost of mentoring, and our life work depends on mentoring others, respectively.

I love the idea of life sharing. I suppose there are particular times where privacy is prudent, but community is life sharing and not private. I like a place where we are purposefully sharing our joys and our pains. It entwines lives so that they can withstand more stress. I like commitment. It means I am going to give it my all, 110%, holding nothing back. I used to feel this way about school. I’ve tried to feel this way about work. But I’ve found it much easier to be committed to people. Life work, one goal, that other people are working towards; it gives satisfaction in accomplishment and peace in persistence past your direct involvement.

So, dear reader, I will try to be a better friend to you.

Dear Reader,

I begin this entry this way because after picking from the thesaurus a descriptive title, I am at a loss…for words. And so, I will just write. I do apologize to my three and a half readers for infrequent updates. I begin a few months ago. I committed to a friend to pray with him daily on a matter of great importance. We decided to pray daily until we were aware of God’s work in the matter, though we worded it slightly differently then: …pray until something happens. Since then I have had the privilege and grace to come alongside four other friends and commit to praying with them daily for the needs of our lives. I have been blessed with testimony after testimony of how God answered our prayers. But I am tired now. My commitment to current friends, though perhaps not as explicitly stated or written as in past weeks, has waned. I am the one who needs help. So now the craziness begins.