Eugene Peterson is a noted Christian author and the translator of the Message Bible. When he was a college student he got into a spiritual funk. He wasn’t growing and he had a lot of questions.
He tried talking to his pastor. After listening to Eugene for five minutes, the pastor decided his problem was sex. Eugene was 20 years old and had plenty of interest in sex but he didn’t think it was his problem.
He next approached a man who had the reputation in their church of being a saint. The man had spent 40 years in a wheelchair after being shot in a holdup in Cleveland. There was a quiet serenity about him. Eugene had always heard he was wise and holy. So he went to him and talked to him about what he was experiencing.
The man was happy to meet with Eugene and suggested they use the Bible as the text for their conversation. But there was no conversation. The man was only interested in acquiring an audience for his “wisdom.” He proceeded to lecture Eugene from the book of Ephesians for the three or four meetings they had together. Eugene had no idea the Bible could be so dull.
Then a friend suggested Eugene talk to Reuben Lance. Rueben was a fix-it man, good at plumbing and carpentry. He never married. He was sarcastic. He was scornful of most of what passed for religion. Eugene was very intimidated by him, but he went anyway.
They had a summer of conversations and prayer. Reuben listened and never lectured. His attentiveness was not so much to Eugene as to God. Reuben’s attitude infected Eugene and he gradually began to lose interest in himself and got interested in what God was doing in his life. That is what mentoring is all about.
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Edited by David Holwick