Desperate Need

The road can be so difficult to see

In our culture, we are bombarded by messages telling us to prepare for that glorious, magical point in our lives where we reach "retirement." On that blessed day, all work ceases. All our years of striving have finally brought us to the precipice of perfect peace and pleasure. From that point on, we are supposed to do whatever we feel like doing. We are to prostrate ourselves before the gods of comfort, convenience and recreation and spend the rest of our lives worshiping there. Oh sure, we will still volunteer here and there for some cause worthy enough to temporarily interrupt our frolicking fun. But the purpose of our existence is to enjoy ourselves and the "kingdom" we have created. 

Meanwhile, all those coming behind us are drowning. 

But that is no longer our concern. Right?

This couldn't be farther from the Lord's Plan for our lives. I love the teaching of Gregg Harris on the seasons of life. He explains the season of life when we have completed the intense part of building and the next one that follows is the season of hospitality. During this season, those of us who have reached that stage are to bless the lives of others. We are to practice the principles of hospitality, inviting people into our homes, into our lives so that we may serve them. This season of our lives has the potential to bear more fruit than any of the others. We are to share the lessons the Lord has taught us along our journey with those who are coming behind us, those who aren't as far down the road as we. 

Imagine what it would mean to a young mother, frazzled with toddlers and dishes and laundry, to have an older woman come alongside her and speak Truth and Love into her world. To walk along with her. To listen to the frustrations. To offer wisdom and Godly advice learned through having walked the same path years before.

Imagine a Godly older man asking a young father out to lunch, listening to the difficulties he is carrying, trying to provide for his family while also trying to love his wife, and raise Godly children. Imagine the older man cultivating a mentoring relationship with this young man over an extended period. 

Imagine an older couple being an additional set of grandparents for a young family, spending time with the children as well as the parents. Think about the rich conversations filled with time to ask the hard questions, filled with time for prayer and spoken blessings.

I have been in the motherhood business for 24 years now. During those early years, the Lord gave me friends who performed this function. I cannot tell you what those times meant to me. I learned so much. I was so blessed by their service to me. 

You don't have to be on the spiritual level of C. S. Lewis to bless a "younger" person, someone in an earlier stage. You simply have to be willing to spend time with them, listening, praying, encouraging. 

Just this morning, three ladies have sent me messages. In the past two days there have been others. The common thread between each of these women is the fact that they (we) all need someone who is farther down the road to share wisdom, speak truth, come alongside and describe the bends and bumps they will encounter in the future.

Now, as with anything else, there is a balance to this. Ministering outside this balance will not be a blessing to your family. If you still have lots of kids at home, your ability to minister is limited. It's a season. But, in small ways you can still look behind you and encourage someone. When, however, we get to the point where the kids are either on auto-pilot or gone, your schedule is much more open. For women, while making sure we are blessing our husbands, we need to ask the Lord to show us who He would put on our list. The potential for fruit will bless your life far more than one more leisure activity. 

There is a desperate need for mentors for each stage of life. So many people have been raised in homes where they were not equipped to walk with the Lord, to understand the principles that bring blessings into their lives. There are so many young families and young married couples who don't know what's wrong or how to "fix" it. They just know that their relationships are crumbling before their eyes. Without someone willing to come alongside them, many of these relationships will end in destruction. Or if they manage to hold the family together, the fruit being sown and borne in their home will only perpetuate the same types of dysfunction.

Our faith in the Lord is all about relationship. As we are taken into God's family, we are given the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, to dwell within us and be that guide and speaker of wisdom into our lives. This relationship is a model for other relationships in the Body. 

If you are at the point in your life where your responsibilities are no longer demanding all of your time, ask the Lord to use you to minister to someone coming behind you. 

There are so many people who are lost along the way. The road can be so difficult to see. Will you help? Will we, as the Body, help those who need us?

Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don't want anyone looking down on God's Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.

                                                             From Titus 2 in The Message