My brother laughs at the number of novel-length texts I get every day. But I don’t mind it. I send me own share of novel-length texts. And if I can help someone by being a mentor, bring it on.
As chronically ill people, we aren’t often able to serve the body of Christ in the way we wish. We see other people doing all kinds of amazing things to serve their community and encourage people. But how can we?
Well, one way spoonies can make a huge impact for God’s glory is to mentor other Christians. I don’t know about you, but going through a chronic illness opened my eyes to so much. It gave me more and more grace and compassion for those around me. It helped me understand people better, and understand how to comfort, challenge, and help them.
It exposed me to many other points of view in life that I’d not seen before. And it strengthened my relationship with God. Being chronically ill has forced me to ask impossibly hard questions and wrestle with my faith. It made me seek answers and something definite to stand on.
I suspect it’s done the same for you.
Of course, sometimes that can make us feel more unqualified to mentor someone. We think that since we struggled and questioned and doubted that we’re a terrible person to give advice. We feel like a hypocrite telling someone to do something or stand strong when we feel so utterly weak.
But y’all, in my experience, people don’t often want someone whose perfect to counsel them in their struggles. Unless you’re Jesus, people who are perfect can tend to judge. They also have no personal experience with struggles, so you might as well be reading a book. They can give you all the right answers, but if they don’t understand then would someone listen? People who are perfect don’t tend to have practical ideas of what to do since their experience is mostly in theory.
But someone who has faced life’s biggest questions and is still believing, and if not standing strong, at least hanging on to Jesus? That’s someone whose help I would want. That’s someone who I know would have wisdom to share and grace to offer.
So spoonie, if you’re searching for a way to serve God despite being chronically ill, I challenge you to pray about intentionally mentoring “younger” (not necessarily in age) Christians. You have more to offer than you think, and I think many spoonies would make great mentors.
It doesn’t have to look like you think it has to be. It doesn’t even has to be “official” mentoring. It can be being a listening ear to the patient across the hall or scheduling Skype coffee dates when you’re physically unable to meet at an actual coffee shop. It can look like watching a sermon instead of going through a Bible study book or whatever you’re able to do. It can be novel-long texts instead of once a week meetings. God is pretty creative.
Being a mentor can also help us as chronically ill people. It helps us serve the body of Christ, which is obeying the Bible. It gives us accountability — when we know someone is watching, even in our seemingly chronically ill isolation, it helps us to be aware of ourselves and our actions, helping us persevere when we might want to give up. And in my experience, it teaches the mentor a whole lot, not just the mentee.
So spoonie, think about it. Who in your life could use some encouragement or wisdom? What is a wise and sensitive way you can help fill that hole if God so leads you?
So true…I will be taking this to heart!