Hello all,
This week, I started to think about Paul’s second letter to Timothy. Last summer, we went through his first letter and it felt right to finish out this summer with the second one. It has reminded me again of the importance of mentoring. I have had assigned mentors and they have been generally fine and they helped me as a sounding board as I worked through my own thoughts and feelings but, being assigned someone doesn’t make you automatically “look up” to them. The people I think of as my actual mentors are people I kind of picked up on the way, or else they were people who kind of picked me up on the way.
It is the responsibility of older people to mentor younger people. I don’t mean to say that like it is a burden, but it is a dark and scary world out there, and it is has only gotten worse. The only reason that any of us got as far as we have is because older people looked out for us. It isn’t just a nice thing to do, it is crucial in every aspect of life.
Think about the mentors in your life. At any point, did you go up to them and say, “I feel like I am really in need of a mentor. Would you consider being my mentor?” I bet you didn’t. In fact, I bet that the people you think of as your mentors were the kind of people who either just imposed themselves into your life or were always just kind of “there.”
If you wait for someone to approach to you ask you to be their mentor, you may be waiting a long time, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t need you to mentor them or, if you prefer, “be there for them.” The thing is, if people need something and they won’t seek it out (sometimes, because they do not yet realize that they need it), how will it happen? Paul raises a similar concern in his letter to the Romans. After talking about how the people need faith, he writes, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?” The urging is on the “Supply” side because, while there IS a “demand,” the demand often doesn’t, or even can’t, start the process.
If anything in this reflection about the need for mentors stirs anything in you at all, consider doing this: Find someone, and it almost doesn’t matter who. If someone has come to your mind when you have been reading this, start with them. Find a way to send the message, “The church needs what you have to give,” and make it clear that you will back their play. That doesn’t mean you think they will get everything right, only that you are supporting them, whether with your prayer, time, energy, or money. Don’t make them guess whether they have anyone in their corner.
With the exception of a relatively small number of extremely self-motivated people, nobody has ever become a leader just because they had the qualities of a leader. Someone had to boot them out of their comfort zone. Someone made it possible. If someone doesn’t have the time to devote to leading, do what you can to free up some of their time. If they don’t have the mental or emotional bandwidth to lead, do what you can to shoulder some of those burdens so they can.
Nobody can MAKE someone else lead, but there is a lot that we CAN do. Find someone and do your part!