Weak Man, Strong Man

Today I am meeting with one of the young men that God has placed in my life to mentor. I am really looking forward to our time as we encourage and share together. It made me think this morning about this important process and what is required of me to be a mentor. As I move into mid-life, God has more and more given me the role of mentor to young men in the ministry. It is a bit strange as I am more used to being the young man in ministry needing to be mentored. (of course I still need mentoring too.) One of the biggest requirements for me to be a mentor is for me to be open and honest about my weaknesses. This should come as a shock to no one, but I am far from perfect. I am not a perfect husband, I am not a perfect father. There are days where I am too far from it. I am not a perfect pastor. In fact, if you want to consider my failures, you will need some serious time because I fail often. I can be a very weak man. Mentoring, being a role model, pastoring, etc. does not ask me to be perfect or even to look strong. It does require that my walk with God be real and alive. Then, when I am weak, He can be strong through my failures. When I sit down with this young man today we will talk about our marriages, we will talk about our kids. I will share with him what I am learning and needing to learn. I will show him ways that I have failed and what I am learning and doing to grow in those areas of weakness. What I won't do is try to hide my flaws and failings from him. How would that help? I know too many pastor's and "spiritual" men who think that the secret to spiritual leadership is to be in charge, to have the answers, to be all put together. In trying to be that they turn into unreal characters and place themselves, and sometimes their families under enormous strain to try to be something other than they are. Instead of working on growing more Christlike, they seem to feel they need to be godlike. I am weak. There are days when I am not as patient or understanding as I should be. There are times when I am selfish. I get scared. Trusting God is hard when times are hard. I am constantly being taught, corrected, refined by God. Somedays it hurts and sometimes I ask God to stop (He doesn't). That's the real me. I figure the only way for me to be a strong leader, is to be open about my weaknesses. Then those that should follow me can, because they can relate to my life and my spiritual growth.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (10) Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.