“I want to hear Jesus’ voice.”  Many years ago, Richard Foster, founder of Renovare’ told us three things prevent us from hearing that voice we long for: noise, hurry, and crowds. In Luke 10, we find a case study of both sides of that dilemma. Martha is a busy host who opens her home to Jesus and never sits down because of her compulsion to be busy. She must have felt obligated to provide a high level of care for her Lord. Mary, on the other hand, remains seated as an attentive student, opening her mind and heart to Jesus’ teaching. “Martha, you are distracted by many things…only one thing is needed.”

I think the best paradigm for understanding mentoring is learning to listen deep into the gospels, what some call “the music in the text.”  We call this kind of listening meditation. Through which we hear, internalize, and are transformed by the voice of Jesus in his words. In Bible study (exegesis), we use tools of analysis to understand vocabulary, culture, and information that can sometimes remain abstract from our lives. Mentoring is not exegesis; it is meditative listening to the Spirit through the prompting voice of a mentor who invites you to embrace what you hear God saying to you in the text of your life.

What practices nurture this kind of meditative listening?

  1. A quiet place that helps you pay attention.
  2. Perhaps a journal in which to script your questions or your sense of God’s leading.
  3. Allow historical imagination to enter the story you have read. Enter the characters not as an observer but as a participant. In the Prodigal Son, you have three primary portals into the story:
    • The prodigal son who left home to pursue his own goals
    • The prodigal Father who welcomed home his errant son.
    • The predictable brother who stayed home, rebellious in his own selfishness. He didn’t demand his inheritance; he expected it would come in due time.

I use the same practices when I set the table of hospitality for a mentee:

  1. I intend to create a quiet, safe, and hospitable place for the three of us to listen to the music of the conversation (mentor, mentee, and Holy Spirit).
  2. I provide questions, exercises, or prompts to help the mentee listen to their own voice through which they will hear the voice of Jesus as they listen deeply.
  3. I encourage curiosity and imaginative participation in our conversation, reading of scripture, and meditative listening.

 

The table is set for listening for the still, small voice of God. The table is set for slow-paced meditation. The table is set for us to create a space to welcome the person, presence, and voice of Jesus.

Practice: Choose one or three of the meditative listening practices to prioritize in the days leading up to your next meeting with your mentor.

Practice: As you prepare to mentor, attentively and lovingly listen to them, read Jump-Starting An Intentional Spiritual Conversation” for further guidance and suggested questions to focus the time of each conversation.

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Keith Anderson, D.Min., is a Faculty Associate for Spirituality and Vocation at VantagePoint3 and President Emeritus of Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and is the author of several books, including Reading Your Life’s Story (IVP, 2016), A Spirituality of Listening (IVP, 2016), and Spiritual Mentoring (IVP, 1999). Keith’s newest book, On Holy Ground: Your Story of Identity, Belonging and Sacred Purpose, will soon be released from Wipf & Stock Publishers. In his writing, teaching, and mentoring, Keith seeks to set a table for people looking to enter the “amazing inner sanctuary of the soul” in the most ordinary and extraordinary moments of life.

 

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