Mentoring Unawares (Part 1)

I was sitting on a plane recently and after takeoff noticed a man, maybe in his mid 30’s, flip open his laptop and begin to watch a sitcom. He must have downloaded them onto his computer and decided this was as good a time as any to watch them, or possibly get caught up on what he had previously missed. For some reason the phrase “vicarious living” came to my mind. Perhaps I was wondering if this man, amongst millions of others who are watching sitcoms, series and soaps, are really using someone else’s experience as their own. Since then I’ve been thinking about how much people we don’t even know influence us. Like a character on a TV programme we regularly watch, the author of books we read, the singers whose songs we listen to. My mind even wondered if those we interact with over social network forums, some we know and some we don’t, are influencing us to the degree that without our asking or without their agreeing they have become our mentors? 

For me this isn’t such a scary thought, as I am very aware of who I allow into my world as an influence. I wasn’t always so intuitive and found myself “vicariously living” through the characters on many sitcoms, series and soaps. The characters and lives they lived on those shows were “mentoring unawares.” Taking into account I’m referring to over 30 years ago, for the most part, those mentors I watched on screen were positive ones. Also, because I grew up during the pre-social networking and online age I didn’t have hundreds of unabated written voices vying to influence me in their direction. 

In 1986 I was introduced to a daily devotional called “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers. Oswald was born in Scotland in 1874. He was not famous at all during his lifetime. He trained for Christian ministry and later opened a Bible Training College. His wife would sit at the back and record his messages, teaching and devotionals verbatim in shorthand (you younger ones may need to google what that is!). When World War 1 broke out in 1914, he, his wife and young daughter went to Egypt to serve the troops both practically and spiritually. After an emergency appendectomy Oswald died at the age of 43. A life cut short – or so it would seem. His wife, Biddy, and daughter remained in Egypt and happened to send one of Oswald’s sermons as a Christmas gift to the troops. This snowballed into a monthly printing that was sent to thousands of troops. Biddy realized that this was God’s assignment for her - giving her husband’s words to the world in written form.

“My Utmost for His Highest” was first published in 1927. It has continuously been in print and has sold millions of copies in forty different languages. As I did my reading the other day I realized that Oswald Chambers has been “mentoring me unawares” for the past 28 years. Those beginning years of reading his devotional were filled with some profound truths. I was “vicariously living” my life through him. I can now say that after all those years of praying for the depth of relationship he had with the Lord, I am finally living it experientially, not just vicariously.