Over the years there have been people who have asked me to mentor and disciple them, but it has not always worked out. Among them was "John Smith" (not his real name; call him J.S. for short). J.S. is a type, a pattern (homoiomati) that applies to many I have met. Here's how it goes.J.S. comes to our church and gets excited. J.S. wants to meet with me. We meet, me and J.S.
J.S. - (to me) "I want to be mentored by you."
Me - "Let's talk about this."
J.S. - "I want to do what you do. I want to do Big Stuff for God."
J.S. wants to start doing the Big Stuff now, in our context. I hate to burst his bubble but, as his new mentor, J.S. is not ready for this, and our people are far from ready for J.S. As J.S.'s mentor I want him to deep-learn the abiding-in-Jesus life. J.S. wants to jump into the Big Stuff (whatever that is). I want J.S. to marinate in the Small Stuff.
Me - "The Small Stuff is not "small" in God's eyes. Begin spending much alone-time with God. I will show you how I do this." (A mentor gives to his mentoree what he or she has, not what someone else has. I can give J.S. this.)
At this point J.S. does one of two things: 1) J.S. says "OK," but feels disappointed; or 2) J.S. finds another "mentor" who will affirm his way of doing things. Either way, I am no longer J.S.'s mentor.
I want J.S. to get the idea that obedience to Jesus is a long road of dwelling and listening, not a drive-through McSermon. I like how Thomas Merton expresses this. he writes:
"In so far as we desire, with Christ, that the Father’s will may be done in us, as it is in heaven and in Christ, then even the smallest and most ordinary things are made holy and great. And then in all things the love of God opens and flowers, and our lives are transformed. This transformation is a manifestation and advent of God in the world. One of the fruits of a solitary life is a sense of the absolute importance of obeying God—a sense of the need to obey and to seek His will, to choose freely to see and accept what comes from Him, not as a last resort, but as one’s “daily super-substantial bread.” (Merton, A Year with Thomas Merton, Kindle Locations 2278-2283)
Historically and biblically, God wields people who do the Small Stuff for His name's sake. Sometimes, out of the ordinary (there's really no "ordinary" in God's eyes - this is one of the things J.S. cannot see) comes the "extraordinary." But it's not the latter we are seeking. We simply seek God, now, and discern what he wants us to be and do, today, in this small moment.
