Whose Success?

 

 

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:6

Some time ago, I learned a great lesson from a friend. I was telling her how I wished I could compensate her for helping me with a retreat I was planning. I had expressed my thanks that she was working so hard on something for me.

She looked at me and said something to the effect of, “I’m not doing it for you. I am serving the Lord.”

And, so she was.

This is a great truth to keep in perspective when mentoring. Though we are serving the women we are mentoring, our highest service is to the Lord.

One of the first few women I mentored was a single Mom who professed faith in Christ during a follow-up visit to parents of VBS attendees in the city of Reading. This lady was so excited to talk to us so we offered to do an 8 week study on the basics of the Christian faith with her.

She and I met weekly, completed the study and started another. And then another and another for six months.

She told me once that she could not wait to do for someone else what I was doing for her.

One week she told me that the father of her daughter had been calling her. She was going to see him. We talked about the reunion but she didn’t share a lot of details. She did tell me that she had told him about our meetings and he warned her I was from a cult.

The next week she didn’t show up for our appointment. I called. I texted. I sent a note. No response.

I do not have any way of knowing if her profession of faith was real. I certainly thought it was for those six months. That seed may have been planted in rocky soil or it was a test that she eventually turned from but never called me.

I tell you this story to make the point that serving the Lord does not always have the ideal outcome. I know that the Lord used that time to grow me and to help me see His hand in salvation – not mine.

Our service, in all things, must be to the Lord. The fact that He will use us for the good of another person’s soul is a wonderful thing. But, He gets to choose who, when, and what the results will be.

We serve for God’s glory and the good of others. It is a wonderful gift God gives those willing to disciple and mentor others in the Lord when that person grows in faith, helped by the time we spend with them.

However, the mentor is no less useful or faithful when the outcome does not “look” successful to us. We trust that God will use it, even though we don’t know how.

Now, I can see that the Lord used my faithful friend to teach me more about Him. She was an active participant in His plan to give me understanding that I, too, work for Him, not the woman who doesn’t show up.

God used her and He will use you and me in the lives of others – when we are the faithful ones.