- There can be no greater life than one spent in helping people encounter Christ and establish a life of faithfulness to Him, so they can then multiply the Kingdom by investing in others.
The Odyssey is out in theaters. And it has reminded me of an emphasis in that story which has become a rather major theme in my own life: that is, Mentor.
Mentor was the one entrusted by Odysseus to guard his household in Odysseus’ absence and to be a guiding presence in the life of his son Telemachus. Many years after the writing of Homer’s epic, Francois Fenelon in 1699 penned The Adventures of Telemachus. Fénelon pictured Mentor as Telemachus’s constant teacher in all things necessary for the good and noble life. It is Fenelon’s portrayal moreso than Homer’s that has probably impacted our modern concept of “mentoring.”
If there is such a thing as a “mentor” in the Bible, there could be no better example than Jesus with the Twelve. Close personal relationship, serious and deep lessons modeled and taught, a life of moral responsibility practiced and preached. Paul is another who always seemed to have a companion whom he sought to lead, guide and disciple: Mark, Silas, Timothy, Tychicus, Titus. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul exhorted his son in the faith to continue that pattern::
“The things which you have heard from me…entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2).
This fall, I enter into my fortieth year as a seminary professor. Across those four decades, one of my major tasks has been to facilitate the engagement of professors in relationship with students for the purpose of imparting godly wisdom and modeling a life of devotion to God and effective ministry to others…thus preparing those students to in turn make disciples as they go forth to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission.
Personally, it has been the joy of my life to serve as a mentor to generations of students, but also to be a mentor and discipler of my children, prisoners, members of my congregation, and others who are hungry and thirsty for a deeper spiritual walk. As Howard Hendricks of Dallas Theological Seminary once told me, discipling is a life of multiplication. The impact of one mentor/discipler can be substantial as over time as he or she faithfully and patiently invests in individuals who then become disciple-makers themselves.
The mentor/discipleship paradigm has dramatically impacted my devotional life. Every day, I pray for the major mentors of my life – people from my hometown, college influences, the man who poured his life into mine in seminary, and several others whose investment has shaped me across the ensuing decades. It is one of the high privileges of my life to intercede for those who have so faithfully served and supported me.
But I don’t stop there. I pray for my family (protegés, of a sort), former students, and others whom the Lord has placed in my life through the years to teach and encourage. Most of all, I intercede for current students and those with whom I meet weekly in discipleship groups, some of which have been ongoing for decades. Many, many names are daily lifted to the Lord for multiplied blessing across the nations of the world.
One of the things that Telemachus’ Mentor tried to convince him of was simply this: You are Odysseus’ child – rise up, act like it. That is the essence of our Lord’s Commission for our lives: invest deeply in the lives of others, helping them to realize, You are someone made in the image of God – rise up and live like it. There can be no greater life than one spent in helping people encounter Christ and establish a life of faithfulness to Him, so they can then multiply the Kingdom by investing in others.
