“...We are guides into God's most sublime secrets, not security guards posted to protect them. The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge.”
(1 Corinthians 4:1-2)
When heading out into the wilderness, onto unfamiliar trails, having and following a good guide is important. I was talking with someone who has ventured out on many hunting trips over the years and asked him about what makes a good guide. He said the worst guide had used their supplies without asking, wasn’t at all knowledgeable of their surroundings, and he led them to cabins full of holes with an outhouse that was up the hill and flowing toward the cabins. The best guide he’d experienced took great care of them along the way, took his job seriously, was extremely knowledgeable and led them in prayer before meals.
You may have heard the expression, “Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend” (Unknown). However, there are times we need more than a friend or a teacher. We need a guide, someone to take the lead for us. And God provides. How many times have we felt lost on an unfamiliar trail of life, unprepared and afraid to take the next step? And God presents us with that very person we needed to lend an ear, to share the experience, to point us in the right direction, even sometimes, to take the lead for us.
“[God] comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)
We’ve all known the feeling of being taken out of our comfort zone and plopped into unfamiliar territory without any idea of what direction we should take or even how to manage that next step. Perhaps it is when a doctor delivers a diagnosis, a spouse asks for a divorce, when life gives us what we do not want, or any number of unanticipated scenarios that leave us feeling we are on an uncharted, precarious course.
A recent 20/20 program about hiking Mt. Everest discussed the use of native Sherpas as guides. According to this program, “local Sherpas know the weather, route, and mountain extremely well and assist climbers, but don’t make critical decisions about when to summit or even when to turn back.”
The very best of our own Spiritual Sherpas do that for us as well. They are there to share their knowledge and enlighten us with their experience; but they are not there to make our decisions for us. They may lead us at the start, but their ultimate goal is to serve God’s purpose and then willingly move beside us and be our friend.
Have you spent time thinking about your own Spritual Sherpas? Do you get the same feeling as I do that they could be sent by none other than God himself?
It’s a humbling thought, but maybe God is calling you to be a Spiritual Sherpa for someone who is starting out on an unknown trail, a trail for which you have much experience and knowledge to share. May God bless you as you move on to tell his story and serve his purpose:
From all the neighboring nations of the earth.
Now they move on to tell the story
Of what has been and is, but also is to come.
God in the now prepares them for the future;
The end is not yet - with him it is just begun.
~ "In Exploration of a Vision" (Brendan the Navigator)
Now they move on to tell the story
Of what has been and is, but also is to come.
God in the now prepares them for the future;
The end is not yet - with him it is just begun.
~ "In Exploration of a Vision" (Brendan the Navigator)
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