There is an interesting discussion going on in the blogsphere about mentors and young Christian guys who want their lives to count. It started with a post by Tim Challies entitled A Desperate Jealousy where he humorously jokes about being jealous of Joshua Harris for having a sweet mentor in CJ Mahaney.
After having some fun about how examines all the new staff at the church he attends, he makes a very honest comment:
I am desperate for a mentor. I am absolutely desperate to have someone who will invest in me. I am desperate to find a person, or have a person find me, who will play Paul to this Timothy. ... So here I am. I'm not sure if I am writing this in the hopes that pastors and leaders will read it and it will help them understand that there are men in their churches who are just waiting and ready to be mentored. Maybe I'm writing it so even lay-people like myself will take a hard look at ourselves to find those men within our own churches who could be waiting for us to come to them. Or maybe this article is entirely selfish and I'm just putting my hand in the air and asking someone to notice me. I honestly don't know. As a bit of an introvert I don't think I would ever be that bold. What I do know is that I feel like I've come to a point in life where I not only want, but really need, someone to play a mentoring role in my life.Tim, I just have to say I totally track with you. Next I read Adrian Warnock's encouragement to Challies...basically telling him to go find a mentor, do what it takes, go wherever you can find it. To that, my friend from the other side of the pond, I say "touche!" Great advice...but it ain't even always that easy. I for one want to echo with these guys that this is about the Sovereignty of God. A little over a year ago I moved my whole family to find a mentor in another locale. A guy who had approached me, recruited me, and said to me "come on lets go." Is he my mentor today? No. But I have learned much from him. For some reason God's idea for me moving to my current zip code was to wrestle with Him, pause before his throne, be around someone whose life was so full that there was not an avalanche mentor time coming. So, here I sit again in the same dad gum chair. Wondering - maybe Jesus is my mentor, maybe that is more than enough. But somehow I think he wants me to find brotherhood here in middle earth as well as from his divine hand. The guy who was to mentor me, I love at a distance, pray for him quite a bit, but don't really know him very well. And to say it like a guy who has come right off of the leather sofa: "I'm OK with that now." So Tim, I feel you brother, and Adrian, thanks for the advice. We need to pursue others diligently and find slices of bread from many guys while not expecting the whole loaf from just one...Now that little ditty I did glean from my almost-mentor. And for that I am very thankful. ... --------