The term "mentor" comes from ancient Greek mythology. Ulysses placed his son under the tutelage of a wise sage named Mentor. While Ulysses was off fighting the Trojan Wars, Mentor was responsible for educating his son in wisdom and not merely information. Other terms for mentoring include spiritual direction, soul-friendship, spiritual counseling, discipling, and spiritual guidance. The mentor allows us to see deeply into our lives in order to discern its meaning. He awakens the mentoree to his uniqueness in the image of God for authentic acts of ministry. Spiritual mentoring helps us discern what God desires for us and the movements of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Good mentors create space for others to learn from them and with them.
Mentors come in all shapes and sizes. While at Biola, I was attracted to Greek professor Harry Sturz.
He obviously knew some things I didn't know, and I found myself wanting to experience something of the joy he found in the knowledge on which he feasted with such gusto. His love for New Testament Greek left an echo ringing in my heart. He would become one of the few people in my life whose impact can never be measured. As it turned out, he became a spiritual mentor as well, a voice of spiritual encouragement, one who validated my own nascent attempts to become a good student of Greek. Back then I hardly realized it, but today I can see it clearly. Harry Sturz revealed himself in me, gave me a part of his life, and freed my mind to long for more. We met weekly for years. In that hospitable and safe space he created for me, I began to listen to my life like I had never done before. It was he who led me to recognize God's amazing threads of grace at work in my life. Because of him I would soon discover the unique voice God had given me to use for his purposes.
Whose life do you desire to imitate or emulate?
Who has created a safe space in which to tell your own story?
Who can see more deeply into life than most of the people you have ever known?
My mentor's words changed everything for me. I would no longer see myself in the same way again. Every word in my Greek New Testament soon begged to be watched, listened to, handled, and examined. I became a Detector of Divinity (D.D.), writing books about God's genius and admiring the texts he left for us to follow.
There are few honors in life more precious than to walk alongside a brother or sister on a journey of spiritual formation.