On Mentors and Guides

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road -- the desert road -- that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian enuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.  This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.  The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet.  "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.  "How can I," he said, "unless some explains it to me?"  So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him....."Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?"  Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:26-35).

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With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.  Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

(Mark 4: 34)

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Everyone who seeks the Truth needs a guide or a mentor.  Like the Ethiopian enuch, how can we understand the words of God unless someone explains them to us?  The enuch was reading Isaiah, hoping to understand for himself, and God sent Philip right up to the carriage.  Was that because the enuch had gone to Jerusalem "to worship" that God sent him an answer to what he was seeking? 

Recently, I watched Captains Courageous, a movie about a spoiled young boy who thought he owned the world, until he fell off an ocean liner and was rescued by a fishing schooner.  Under the discipline of the schooner's captain, the young boy began to learn that he was not the center of the universe.  The captain said of him, "He's growing up:  when he came to us, he knew all the answers; now, he's beginning to ask questions."  I think when we are willing to accept a mentor, a guide, we too begin to grow spiritually.

When Jesus told the crowds that his flesh was the life of the world and that whoever ate his flesh and drank his blood would live forever, He said this: "The Spirit gives lives; the flesh counts for nothing.  The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life."  From this time, many of his disciples turned back nd no longer followed him. 

"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life." (Jn. 6: 53-68).

I think each one of us must come to the place where we decide who it is that "has the words of eternal life."  We must abandon the idea that "we shall be as gods, knowing for ourselves" good and evil, and bow down in worship before the only One Who can lead, teach, and guide us.  We must find our mentor, our guide, Who alone has the words of eternal life.  The prayer of an honest man avails much, and the quest for Truth, without predisposed "knowing" is the most honest and pure prayer we can pray.

I believe that the journey, like that of the enuch, begins in worship.  God will speak to our hearts and send someone to teach us as we ask Him to lead us into the Truth.  Only He knows where we need to begin to learn.  If we are willing to begin with acknowledging Him, "our hearts will burn within us" as we recognize the mentors and guides He sends:  Spirit speaks to spirit.  

Acknowledging God is the greatest adventure of all; it leads us in paths that continually open before us.  He does not save us by ourselves, but in communion with others who have gone before us in the spiritual life -- and that communion with Him and with others who have been taught by Him is richer than anything the world can offer us.