When you look at your calendar for this month of December, is mentoring the first thing that comes to your mind? If your calendar is anything like mine, you don't have too many empty squares or spare moments.
"December is a busy month. It's just one month. I'll look for opportunities in January
when things slow down."
Is my excuse a valid reason for passing up ministry opportunities during 1/12 of the year.
Too often I decide in advance that other people are too busy to accept my invitation to lunch or tea or even that they are too busy for a phone call. Even if that is true, are they too busy to receive a card from me with an encouraging verse this December?
Am I too busy to listen to others this month? Perhaps in no other month are people more in need of a listening ear, as they process all that is going on in their lives.
We'll all probably run into friends while out shopping or we'll strike up a conversation in line at the checkout or post office. Do you have a few questions at the ready to redeem those conversations?
I know that I don't want to just endure the busy season only to make it to New Year's Day with a numb heart. Busy times are when I most need questions that probe my heart. Will I do the same for others this December.
As my first short-term missions experience came to an end, a wise friend suggested I prepare a 15 second, 30 second. 1-minute, and 2 -minute answer to this question, "How was Japan?" I could talk for hours, but most people were looking for a 15-second answer.
Once I distilled my answer, I knew that even if the person stopped listening after 15 seconds, they would have heard the most important thing. In my case, I most wanted my listeners to grasp more of God's power to answer prayer.
What about this month? Do you have a 15-second answer prepared for when people casually ask you how you are? Will your 15-second answer point them to your busy schedule, leading them to commiserate with you or to feel bad in comparison?
Or will your 15-second answer point them to Jesus, the One whose birth we celebrate, the One who gives us daily grace, joy and reason for living? Will your answer point them to the One who forgives us when we're short with those closest to us and gives us a second chance?
As we move through this month filled with additional actives, I wonder if we should ask God for quiet hearts that listen - both to Him and His Word and also to others. I wonder if we should ask Him for grace to speak less and wisdom so that the words we do speak are a ministry of encouragement to others.
Of course, this type of mentoring ministry of intentional listening and speaking only flows from a quiet heart that sits at Jesus' feet.
"The branch of the vine does not worry and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and
there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right
time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord
Jesus." - Hudson Taylor
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 ESV
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