When Desperation Drives You to Finally ASK
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A MESSAGE FROM MONICA:
She was a guest speaker at our Bible Study…an elegant woman with empathetic eyes and graceful demeanor, and a southern accent that lilted words and softened the convictions that always came as she spoke the truth. Plainly.
She words were full of authority and grace, with understanding and yearning. I sat mesmerized and unable to blink as she shared about Jesus – her Jesus – and how He changed her. Utterly and completely changed her.
For the next several days I struggled to stand as my weary bones carried my heavy heart. As I’d shuffle along throughout each day, she’d appear in my thoughts, blowing across my mind like a refreshing breeze. I needed something…that much I knew – and one day I suddenly realized I needed her.
On an it’s-almost-fall morning, with a cup of coffee in my hands, I found her number and called her. I stumbled over my words until I could coherently state,
I need a mentor. I desperately and immediately need a mentor.
Okay, she replied with that southern lilt and graceful demeanor. Let’s meet for lunch and we’ll see what God says about this.
Over squash soufflé and sweet tea with extra ice, she told me she’d been praying and that God nodded Yes, you should mentor this lost and desperate girl (although maybe I imagined the last part). And we developed a schedule and a plan and a list of things I needed guidance with.
She left with a very, very long list.
For the next year, I met with her every month in her home as we discussed life and jobs and God and husbands and children. She taught me how to pray and read the Bible and seek counsel and trust God with every fiber of my being.
She prayed with me and over me, and she cried with me…those empathetic eyes remembering her own journey and struggle…with graceful demeanor, knowing exactly where I was…never judging, just knowing.
In that house and on that couch…with throw pillows surrounding us, and the rose garden looming outside us, and the King Charles Spaniel resting between us, and sweet tea on the coffee table beside us…she walked with me through the valley of the shadow of death, never once letting go of my hand as we journeyed together.
She was the epitome of the Titus 2 woman – teaching me what is good, being a positive example, showing me what it is to love my husband and children, to control myself in every way and to be pure.
In that house and on that couch, I sat mesmerized and unable to blink as she shared about Jesus – her Jesus – and He changed me. Utterly and completely changed me.
Mentors don’t show up on your doorstep, peeking around you at the inside of your life, declaring, Obviously, I need to mentor you!
Rather, mentors show up in the quiet and normal places.
They are people you work with, interact with, church with – the people with graceful demeanor and empathetic eyes – and instead of assuming, pridefully, they can help you – they go about their business of doing what God has called them to do –
Until they get a phone call from a lost and desperate soul begging them to be a mentor.
And then they pray and see what God says about it.
And when God nods, Yes, you should mentor this lost and desperate soul, then you do life together – US – together on couches with sweet tea and throw pillows and napping dogs between you.
In the Bible, James reminds us to ask for what we need. Chapter 1 verse 5 says,
If you don’t have all the wisdom needed for this journey, then all you have to do is ask God for it; and God will grant all that you need. He gives lavishly and never scolds you for asking.
We need to boldly ask for what we need.
And watch as Jesus – their Jesus – utterly and completely changes you in the process.
What do you need to boldly ask God for today? BE BOLD and plainly state your needs, and watch God answer!