guide
A few summers ago, my son and I went to Colorado with a group of friends for some time in the wild. Along with climbing a 14,000ft mountain and surfing in the river, we decided to go white-water rafting. Our trip guide was a local to the area who had grown up on the river. It would have been foolish to find a boat ourselves and launch in without the expertise of someone who knew what they were doing. Things can go wrong quickly on the river.
What struck me most during our float was how the guide could anticipate every rock and current ahead and get us doing the right movements so we were positioned to safely navigate each section. Without the expertise of someone with local knowledge, we would have been blindly reacting instead of purposefully moving.
On the journey of following Jesus, we desperately need guides to help us navigate the different sections of life. If we’re honest, most of us live sort of blindly reacting when it comes to our awareness of God’s leading in our lives. Our diet of sermons, podcasts, books, and Bible studies are a helpful starting place, but most of us lack the inner life skill necessary to move what we hear from our head to our hearts. Knowledge is powerless if it doesn’t make its way into our lives in a way that makes us more like Jesus.
For that journey, in the realm of our heart and soul, we need men and women who have logged miles through the obstacles of life and understand from personal experience what it looks like to faithfully (not perfectly) walk with Christ over a long period of time. We need proximity to people who know what to look for, understand what’s ahead, and are familiar with the pitfalls along the way.
The question is not whether or not we need a guide, the better question is: who is intentionally helping you navigate your journey with Jesus?
Who is helping you read and understand Scripture? Who is helping you become more aware of and responsive to God’s leading in your life? Who is helping you learn to pray? Who is helping you make sense of your circumstances and adopt the right movements so you are purposefully living into the life Jesus created you for? Who have you given permission to see behind your false self?
Though it’s common, there is great danger in walking alone. Culture has sold us the lie of hyper-individualism.
The constellation model of mentoring, applied as a dynamic in spiritual growth, suggests the most effective spiritual development happens through a network of relationships rather than an over-dependence on a single person. Our need for a constellation of mentors emerges from a recognition that life is too multifaceted for any one person to provide all the guidance.
One of the greatest factors that shapes who we become is who we are surrounded by. The currents of the world are perilous to our journey with Jesus if we haven’t invited the right people into our lives to show us the way forward.