By: Jeremy N.
You know that Staples button with the phrase “that was easy”? I’ve been thinking about that a lot since I’ve been back from Arrow. Coming back, I was expecting things to be easier. I was looking forward to seeing God at work and having all these stories to tell. Not that it wouldn’t require work, but I thought it would be easier. Let me tell you. Nothing is ever easy.
For Arrow, I’m required to find a mentor. So, I was praying for God to provide me one. The first person I contacted was a professor who leads the ‘church in the city’ program at Tyndale, thinking that would be perfect given my own passions. Surprisingly, he was open to meeting with me. But at the end of our first meeting, he assigned me a book to read and if we were speaking the same “language”, he would agreed to being my mentor, but not before.
I wasn’t expecting this. I would have been fine if he had said yes or no, but not for more work to be assigned to me. If I’m perfectly honest, I didn’t really want to be challenged that much. But, what else could I do at this point? I mean God did provide me with a potentially excellent mentor. I couldn’t “settle” and find another mentor who would be less challenging, I might as well not do it. There’s no room for being lukewarm, I’m either all in or out.
The past two months have been challenging because I’m so used to things being easy. I’m used to having enough competency where I can stay comfortable with what I do. But when things start getting more difficult, when there’s more discipline required, I quit. I don’t want to put in the work for a result that I’m not guaranteed of. Yet, if I’m really interested in being led by Jesus, if that’s what I’m really being invited to, then I’ve just got to dive right in.