Mentoring

It is an interesting season in life having just turned sixty-six.  My father died at this age and so i have always wondered whether I would make it. Thankfully, both my twin brother and I celebrated our 66th birthday together last weekend.

What makes the season challenging are the winds of change.  They are ever-present as I move from twelve hour work days to two day work weeks with the luxury of discretionary time.  Additionally, I no longer punch a clock nor do I scramble to make time for administrative meetings and late night counseling sessions.  I am, to a "frightening" degree, in control of my own time schedule.

It's "frightening" because I have an accelerated sense of upward accountability for the usage of my time.  There was always that in pastoral ministry but there was also horizontal accountability as I thought about the expectations of my board and of a growing congregation.

Now there is for me a handful of counseling clients, eight grandchildren nearby, a local church and an adult class weekly teaching assignment, and my ongoing ministry "overseeing" a pastoral training institute  in Haiti.  It's enough.

But I have extra time.  And I have an opportunity in these later years, given   the presumption that age and experience produce some wisdom worth sharing, an opportunity to mentor.  It was brought home to me today at a Bible Study led by my stepson who is a pastor.  He was leading a discussion on REAL LIFE DISCIPLESHIP, written by Jim Putman, and discussing people "upstream" and downstream" in his sphere of influence.  As a class participant I had completed the assignment asking us to do the same.  As he shared his "upstream"--those to whom he looks for wisdom and counsel--my name was there.

I was startled.  I had listed his name, given our weekly family and church interaction, as in my "upstream".  We laughed about it later.

I love mentoring.  It isn't that I have it all figured out.  But I have learned some things--many of them through the rigors of personal experience--that are worth sharing with others, if for no other reason than to help theme escape some of the painful learning process to which most of us fall prey.

In the last few weeks I've mentored someone who is recovering from painful experiences in church leadership; another has been talking to me about a ministry idea and we have rehearsed some of the "pro's" and con's".  Ina ll of these situations, and more, I am smiling at the memory of lessons learned and the opportunity to share them with others who come to me...probably because I am old.  Probably because I am available.

No doubt because God has a purpose for us even in our later seasons of life. Don't miss a chance to be a mentor.