Pause before the new year

For whatever reason, I've been feeling convicted about the relationship between a [spiritual] race and mentorship. What does 'rest' look like? How are my disciples running? When I ponder over 'how they are running', I am not wondering how many ministries are they serving in or how often do they go to church or how "spiritual" do they sound? I'm essentially praying over their spiritual stamina, fitness, and ability in the race marked out for them.

I was talking to my girlfriend about my thoughts and it's just beautiful how she allows our Father's heart to pour into mine. Through conversations and prayer, I felt convicted to hold off meeting with my mentees until 2012. I believe the remainder of this 2011 year should be spent in prayer. Some of these guys just need to 'rest' and to be 'prayerful'. If a mentor produces disciples that do not pray and does not rest, then there's a problem! LOL I'm essentially creating machines. And if disciples do not pray... are they really disciples?

Furthermore, why is it that my guys could abstain from a majority of all the ten commandments except one - "keep the sabbath day Holy." Now, I am not bashing on my guys. I too fall short in resting! To be renewed, one needs to rest; and renewal is a daily thing. You don't pray, read the bible, talk godly, or have fellowship once every two weeks at mentorship. It has to be a daily exercise (keeping in line with increasing our spiritual stamina and workout). Some people think that 'resting' means to sit as a spectator in a race; others think that rest means to slow down in the race. I read this passage in Hebrews 12:1 yesterday in small group. It says: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us..." The goal is Christ. To run is Christ. To die is to gain. The moment we feel like sitting as a spectator is the moment the enemy has won. The moment we feel like slowing down is the moment we loss our sense of eagerness with the Lord. So no... resting is not slowing down or sitting aside in the race marked out for us. Resting allows us to focus clearer at the end goal as He graciously imparts His mysterious will, compassion, power and vision upon us. Resting allows us to taste a piece of His heart for us! Wow - isn't that amazing?! Now wouldn't that make us want to run supernaturally faster?! As we rest, we receive His great love for us as supposed to be working so hard that we forget to receive. Rest isn't a physical thing where we do nothing or stop running. Sabbath is a sabbath of the heart.

So the group is just going to do our own thing, and if that means hanging out with one another - kekeke - COOL! And if that means hanging out without talking about Jesus, so be it. But to be honest, my favorite conversational topic is about Jesus. But I am opened to essentially anything :p Perhaps the rest of this month could be used to build what we might have lost focus on - to build relationships with one another. Now, taking a break from mentorship does not mean we're doing nothing. I said go be prayerful. Honestly, if we can't even be prayerful when we DON'T meet, how are we trusting God in any of this? So for the next few weeks where me and the guys hang out, we probably won't be doing what we usually do. We'll probably just hang out and just pray.

Overall, prayer expresses the vitality of a disciple. My hope is that we may be more prayerful and less conversational with one another. Coming together to share our life issues and struggles is an awesome and well needed thing. In the end, we need to recognize that our life issues should not be submitted to one another, but to God.