Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024
Trusting a Spiritual Mentor
“On a personal level,” Jack continued, “my sister-in-law has been diagnosed with breast cancer and my favorite uncle died last month of a stroke. Our good friends were hit by a large car that couldn’t stop on an icy road in December. They’re lucky to be alive. Where’s the goodness of God in all this? Where’s the safety?”
Jack ran out of breath as he finished his litany and sat in silence.
“You see the world as all bad news, don’t you, Jack?” Manny asked, “filled with turbulence, trouble, chaos, and crime. To you, life is unexplained chaos.”
Manny paused.
“Don’t you think there’s any joy, peace, or safety on this earth—or anything good? Don’t you see that your wife and two boys are a blessing to you?”
Jack looked at him with a blank stare.
Manny challenged Jack with a question that framed everything he’d been asking himself.
“Would you like to find the safest place on earth?”
“Where would that be?” Jack responded in a voice empty of emotion.
His voice gained a sliver of hope as he said, “Is there such a place? Could you show me where it is?”
Manny’s face lit up. “Yes, there’s such a place, and I can help you find it. Are you willing to let me guide you?”
Jack thought to himself, “What do I have to lose?”
But how could he agree to follow the directions of a man he’d met only thirty minutes before?
There was something about Manny he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He spoke with a voice of authority and credibility. His face had an aura of understanding and compassion. The timbre and inflections of his voice resonated with strings in Jack’s created being called hope and joy, the vibration of which he hadn’t felt for years.
In the fourth chapter of John, Jesus said to Peter and his brother Andrew, “Come follow Me,” and “they left their nets and followed Him.”
Later, He came upon James and his brother John in a boat with their father. When Jesus called them, “immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him.”
The four of them didn’t think twice. Jesus asked; they followed. It was that way with Jack responding to Manny’s question.
From Finding the Safest Place on Earth
Available at: https://bit.ly/SafestPlaceonAmazon