The Little Letters - Day 33

12 Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth.
This is a classic redirect!
He went from admonishing Gaius to not be like Diotrephes to showing him a better way with Demetrius.
 
Perhaps we can take a couple of things away from this. 1) That young people are sometimes in need of mentors. 2) In any given community there are both those who get it and those who don’t.

Let us deal with the second issue first: In any given community there are those who get it and those who don’t. What I do not see happening is I don’t see the Elder kicking anyone out of the community at this point. Rather, he is redirecting Gaius to a better mentor and a better example. I would be that he would hope for the same for Diotrephes as well. Remember, while there are bad apples, there are also good ones. We need to pray and work toward making those good apples the examples, giving them influence, and directing other people to them to see how they should live and behave.
 
The difficult part for the Author is that he isn’t in town. He has to go with what he is hearing and try to direct from far away. Interestingly, that is often what we have to do at Crosswalk, as we cannot be at every campus and Lovewell group each week. We get reports, we try to prayerfully direct, but we also are only as good as the information that we are receiving. This is why I travel to the campuses as often as is reasonably possible.

Now, lets deal with #1. Young people need mentors. It behooves each and every one of us to find those who will continue the faith and work toward helping them mature and grow in their faith. This is not just about teaching them the doctrines and fundamental belief statements. Rather, it is about making sure they understand how wide and deep the love of God is for them and how they can translate that back into a community of belonging so that others may experience that same love they have.
 
Can you think of a mentor that you had, either formal or informal, that made an impact on your life? What was their name? What did they do for you? Were they simply available?
I have been lucky enough to play that role in many young people’s lives. They are not so young anymore, but they still find time to connect with me, and every once in a while they thank me for being a positive influence in their lives. Now, this is not to say that I didn’t make many mistakes and there are probably those out there that I had the opposite effect on as well. For that, I am truly sorry.

But we all need to be involved in the growth and development of those around us. I have been blessed to have those who have poured into my kids, so they might know other mentors and benefit from their perspective and input.

1. Who is it that influenced you positively for Christ? 
2. How can you find someone to mentor? 
3. Are you willing to put yourself out there and increase your influence on a person who is growing in the faith?