Spiritual Mentors

Spiritual mentors are important in the life of a growing Christian. Sometimes I think this is a place where the church fails, that it does not provide discipleship to new believers. I was blessed to have a church that gave me what I needed when I gave my life to Christ, before I even knew what I needed. I still call upon my spiritual mentor now and then, and probably always will.



I heard a neat analogy the other day in a bible study that I am doing. Dee Brestin shared that as Christians we are called to walk in the light. Sometimes however, there is "fog" that obstructs our view. We are not able to see where the road leads. If we are not very careful, we might go to far off to the side and end up in the ditch, or worse yet, in a head on collision. A seasoned believer has much experience with staying on the road and knows the best way to get to the destination. A new believer is a little less sure and kind of "feels" his/her way around a bit.



Now imagine driving in that fog. A real dense fog. You are driving slowly and cautiously trying to avoid going off the road, but it is very difficult. Then, just ahead of you you see the tail lights of a car. You breath a little sigh of relief because now you can simply follow that car. The driver ahead of you is leading you. They have been where you are going. Just like a good spiritual mentor. They have experience and many times have been where you are going. They may have also been in the ditch a few times and can teach you how to avoid it.



I thought that was pretty cool.