randzig

A while back I had a few post about mentoring.  I was watching a special on the history channel recently about samurai warriors and couldn’t help but think of mentoring and the Christian life.  I was interested in how “the way of a samurai” was taught.  This “way” was something that was sacred and for the most part before the 1400′s fighting was taught inside a family.  After that time warriors then began to branch off training outside their households.  By doing so training became a community responsibility.  Eventually this open approach created a clearer picture as to who was the strongest in any given style or with any different weapon.  The ones that excelled began to look at their talent more systematically.  They began thinking about how it is they were able to defeat their opponents.  The ones that were known to have a special ability were looked after to mentor the others.
The parallels to Christianity I’m about to draw are obvious but I believe even the obvious is meaningless with out initiative.  Today our families in America are like the Samurai families before the 1400′s.  We are for the most part mentoring within our households.  To me this is obvious because you see how one family excels in one specific ability or talent.  For example my dad sings well and even though I do not sing as well as he does the interest in music was undoubtedly spread into my life and my brothers.  While mentoring within the home is great and what should be happening the Christian community could benefit from being more open and intentional about mentoring relationships as the Samurai.  Intentional living and humility is key here.  Everyone would benefit.  I know that there are many who are open to learning many things but unless it is intentional and systematic as the warriors began to realize they needed to be it is at least less effective.
As Christians its important to remember that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood” as it was for the Samurai.  The significance being that no matter what you are not waring against other people but against The Fall(the devil), and the only thing you have to assist you in this is not weapons and fists but spiritual gifts and innate God given abilities.  We need more intentional mentoring.

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