It would have been easy to blow up and make a big deal of it. I could have sulked for a number of days and plotted my revenge. I could have resorted to refusing to engage properly because of the significant slight that I suffered.
I knew better, though.
I knew better not because I had a mental capacity to work out the futility and foolishness of such a gesture. Thinking it through is the easy bit especially way after the event and way before. A useful element, however, that reminds me of Jesus in the moment is the trigger image of one of my mentors.
The trigger image comes in quickly because they have counselled me when I have blown up or made a big deal of it. They have had to help me get on with picking up the pieces after a season of sulking or when my revenge backfired. They have been there to refer me back to the importance of being lead by the Spirit and so not yielding to the flesh that is only too willing to sponsor my bouts of sulking, vengeance and other things.
There have been different types of mentors who have helped me over the years. Some more than others. Some have been great men, some have proven to be seriously flawed men. Yet because of the grace that all of them operate on, I don’t lose heart or lose hope for those who have fallen by the wayside at the moment. The same grace that restored me by their loving mentoring, I know would be able to restore them when they submit to the leading of the same Spirit.
Their support, their inspiration, their guidance, their example always pointed me back to Christ. Their encouragement and reference to the Word of God and the wisdom that flowed from that to help was priceless. Dealing with my self-management, engaging in relating to others, getting on in fulfilling my call, especially learning not to be too hard or heavy on myself because that kind of guilt tripping leads nowhere but down.
They taught me how to be a husband. They taught me how to teach. They invested in me when I was nobody and nobody cared. They rallied around me when others ignored me. Their door was open when I thought it would be shut. When I look to exercise making disciples I have great examples in the men who made it their point of duty to teach me to observe everything that Jesus had commanded.
There is no doubt in my mind that I am a better man because of them. I am forever grateful for my Dad, Uncle Joe, Hughie, Sherman, Kevin S, Kevin W, Ben, Tom, Mike D, Zadock Ray, Danny, Simon, Kevin M, Dave and Alvert.
Special thanks to Ritson, who has been a constant over the majority of my adulthood and more than the others has invested me even at his own detriment and exhibited a faith in God for me that will forever be indelibly marked on my heart.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 