Reaching Forward, Reaching Back

Yesterday, we extended the question what is keeping men from moving from milk to meat.  I wonder if the answer can be found in the passage we started with, Deuteronomy 6:6 – 7?  There we read that we were supposed to talk about the Word of God, well, just about all of the time.  Perhaps we need to be able to process life with one who is walking ahead of us in this journey.

Mark 3:14, tells us that Christ appointed 12 first to be with him.  In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul exhorts Timothy, who he recruited to be with him during Paul’s second missionary journey, to recruit other men who would be able to teach others.  Prior to that Barnabus took Paul under his wing.

If you look you will find the same pattern in the Old Testament.  It permeates the Bible.  The pattern seems to be that truth is transmitted through relationship with, using a current term, a mentor.  It is the old master and apprentice model.

We were clicking through channels last evening and ran across the end of “The Phantom Menace.”  You may remember the dialog between Yoda (just about, no, my favorite character in the series) and Mace Windu.

Yoda: Always two there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice.
Mace Windu: But which was destroyed, the master or the apprentice?

The point here is that each of us, no matter where we are in the journey, needs someone who can draw us along.  One whom we respect who can push us further than we would go on our own.  Further, the expectation is that we will in turn be that man for another.  That applies not only to our children but other men in our sphere of influence.

Who is helping you?  Who are you helping?