My wife and
I just completed the most wonderful vacation of our (not so) young lives.
We spent two
experience-packed, location-visited, scenery-blessed weeks in the most idyllic
countries on the planet. Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. And what made
it all the more memorable is the fact that we can each pinpoint specific sites
where specific ancestors were born, and from whence they immigrated to the
United States. Not only were we operating off this knowledge, but we visited
several of these locations; including such wonderful places as the Isle of
Skye, Glasgow, and Edinburgh.
When our
tour bus passed through what is referred to as The Giant’s Causeway, we
de-boarded for a couple of hours, and walked about a mile, along the foaming
North Ireland surf, to one of the strangest geological formations on this
planet.
Thousands of
interlocking columns of basalt with five and six-sided flat surfaces make up
two stony hills, and border the foaming Atlantic surf. Next to the hills is
another naturally-occurring geological formation constructed of the same basalt
blocks of stone, but stacked one upon another to make up a virtual wall approximately
seventy feet in height. Legend has it that two giants fought on this site, and
that one of the giants created the causeway as a sort of boxing ring. Well, as
Forrest Gump was prone to say, “I don’t know about that,” but it is a magical
location.
Anyone who
knows me well knows that, in spite of my age, I would not be denied. Not only
did my wife and I have our photo taken in front of that strange wall, but I was
determined to climb both of these hills.
Pt. 2
And climb
them I proceeded to do.
Having
gingerly stepped from the top of one interlocking column to another, and as I
was about halfway up one of these rocky outcrops, I asked one of two or three
yellow-vested employees in the area,
“Do some of
your visitors break their ankles on these rocks?”
To which the
young lady responded,
“Well, yes
they do. And sometimes they break more than their ankles.”
At this
point any old fool would have thought better about such a foolish mission, as
the one I had undertaken. But I guess I’m not just any old fool.
Since the
Scottish girl was standing in front of me, I posed a question.
“Is it okay
if I climb to the top?”
To which she
responded,
“Sure, you
can. Just go up straight behind me.”
While she
possessed a significant Irish accent, her words were perfectly legible, but the
tenor of her words confused me.
“Uh, you
mean you are going to lead the way?”
The, (no
doubt low paid) employee smiled a half smile, and replied,
“No, I mean
just walk straight up the hill behind where I’m standing. Don’t take any other
path.”
Now, I
understood her inference. She wasn’t going up with me, but the pathway had
previously been laid out.
I expect I
responded with (something like),
“Oh, now I
get it. Thanks.”
Pt. 3
I think the
Christian life is a lot like the foregoing illustration, and the two foregoing
possibilities.
In the one
case, we have been left with the known character, writing and possibly
audios/videos of those who have long since gone on to their reward, and who
have laid out a proverbial pathway before us.
In my own case,
people like the Apostle Paul, and more recently Eric Liddell, Peter Marshall,
Jim Elliot and Amy Carmichael. I call them my “dead mentors.” (To be sure the
only mentors I have ever had are dead folks).
So much like
Hebrews 11:4.
“Though
dead, yet they speak.”
In the other
case, there are those older, wiser, more seasoned individuals who, when they
say, “Just go up straight behind me” mean it literally, and (unlike the young
lass at the Giant’s Causeway) make the arduous climb ahead of us, and serve as living
role models.
I am
privileged to be one of those people of whom I refer. Over the past quarter
century, I have had the pleasure of presenting a year long formal mentoring program
to several dozen young, and not so young people preparing for ministry.
One of my
interns once presented me with a gift. Oh, it wasn’t a tangible one, but it was
the best gift I’ve ever been given.
Rita said,
“Dr. Bill, I
don’t want to disappoint you. I’ll go for you when you can’t go. I’ll speak for
you when you can’t speak. I’ll reach, teach and keep people in your name; long
after you have gone on to your reward.”
I mean, how
great is that?
I love a quotation
I once saw at a high school graduation ceremony.
“My students
are living messages to a time that I will never see.”
Whether as devout,
committed Christian role models we manage to lay out a pathway for them who
will follow us from a distance, (as in the case of my dead mentors), or whether
they find themselves “hot on our trail,” it is very much the same.
I think it
behooves us to blaze a trail before those men, women, boys and girls who will
follow after us; to leave behind a pathway whereby those who follow can better
navigate the steps, and avoid the obstacles.
I know I
intend to.
By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 82. Copyright pending
If you would like to copy, share or save, please include the credit line, above
No comments:
Post a Comment