Partnerships

             I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. (Philemon 1:4-6)

          Have you ever partnered with or mentored (or been mentored by) someone? Undoubtedly, if you’ve had a job, been a child or had a child, you have. If you’re truly a Christian, God and your pastor (at least) are your mentors. Even if you read and apply something you’ve learned from a “self-help” book, you have a mentor. Sometimes, we are offended by the idea of mentoring because it involves submission and suggests that the mentor is somehow superior to us in essence rather than just in experience. The flesh truly is foolish in this way, throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

          When we raise our children, teach our students, train our workers, or otherwise mentor someone, the goal is for them to deepen their understanding of life, the subject, their jobs, or whatever. When they get something right, we should cheer and praise God, and until they get it right, we should pray, correct, encourage, and comfort. But part of that is to keep before them the goal of understanding every good thing they share with us for the sake of Christ, the job, etc.

          Fortunately, books can let people who died even four thousand years ago mentor us. It’s important that we read biographies because they reveal the life of the chosen mentor and their writings because they reveal the mind of the chosen mentor. There’s nothing wrong with having a living mentor, but both are better than one or the other.