Mentoring

Mark 2

¹³Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. ¹⁴As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

¹⁵While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

¹⁷On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

We all are aware of what is called the great commission in Matthew 28:19, that is, to “go and make disciples…”  And, as followers of Christ, we should be doing that, though I suspect many of us, including myself, have fallen short in attempts to follow His directive.  But, when thinking about Jesus’ encounter with Levi, he was at his place of work.  Much of Christ’s earthly ministry was spent mentoring, especially the 12 that he called to be his disciples.  Because many of us spend a majority of our waking hours during the week at our place of work, we, too, should be looking for opportunities to mentor others, whether they are already followers of Christ or not.  We know that our Savior is concerned not only with the spiritual part of our being, but the whole of it.  Mentoring may only start out as teaching about work related things and guidance in the person’s career, but can often lead to the spiritual as well.  I am thankful for the opportunities He has given me over the last several years to mentor others at work.  Investing oneself in others takes a lot of time, but is quite rewarding.  The most recent person I was mentoring just left the company, so I’m praying for the next person to mentor.  Are you?