Who are Your Mentors?

This past weekend my wife and I went to see Julie & Julia, the new movie about a woman who decides to spend a year blogging through Julia Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. As a quick aside, the movie is delightful. Meryl Streep plays Julia Child and Amy Adams plays Julie Powell, the aforementioned blogger.

In an attempt to focus energy on something she loves (cooking), Julie decides to cook her way through every recipe in Julia Child’s first book over the course of one year, while at the same time writing a daily blog about the ups and downs of the endeavor. During that year Julie learns an enormous amount about cooking, about Julia Child, and about herself. She spends so much time with Julia via her books and videos that she establishes what to her is a significant relationship with the famous cook. For Julie, it is a relationship with a woman she has never met, but who nonetheless influences her life in a very deep way.

As I reflected on the movie I was reminded of some of the people I would call mentors in my own life. I’ve always been aware that God put people in my life who would direct and guide me in a special way, who would listen and offer feedback, who would share themselves with me. I also know that God has put others in my life to accomplish pretty much the same things, even though I never knew those people personally. And I can honestly say that those people have had nearly as much impact on me as those I’ve actually done life with for a time.

In my early years in business in the ’80s I discovered Dale Carnegie’s books and training courses. This man, who passed away in 1955, did more than anyone else with the exception of my wife in shaving off some of my very rough edges. Sales gurus like Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins taught me that it was o.k. to bring a sales presentation to a close and actually ask for an order without being pushy or unprofessional.

Zig Ziglar was another author and speaker who showed me a vision of life that I desperately needed. I was never really wired to be a “sales guy”, but that was my profession for a number of years and Zig Ziglar helped me adjust my attitude in ways that no boss ever could. And even though I never met Zig, nor even saw him speak in person, he influenced more than just my work life. He also spoke into my spiritual life at a time when I was very far from God.

I was traveling somewhere in the U.S. and my long-distance mentor was speaking in Chicago. Since I could not attend, my wife Cheryl went to see him in my place. Afterward Zig was signing autographs and Cheryl approached him with my copy of his best known book, See You at the Top. She didn’t say anything about my spiritual condition, rather she simply told him that he had been a big influence on her husband’s life and that I was out in the field putting his teaching into practice. Without further conversation, he took the book from her and wrote, “Joe, I’ll see you at the top! Zig.” And for no rational reason I have ever been able to figure, underneath his signature Zig Ziglar wrote, “Eph 2:8-9.” Cheryl stepped aside and watched him sign more books for people, but she didn’t see him write that verse for anyone else. Apparently God wanted to use Zig to clue me in to the fact that there was only one way I could be saved.

But the most significant flesh-and-blood mentor God has put in my life is someone I have seen speak in person many, many times and whose taped messages I’ve listened to endlessly for nearly twenty years. In addition, I have actually met him and shaken his hand. In fact, I worked on his church staff for nearly seven years.

One particular summer, going back maybe nine years, I was a volunteer leader at this man’s church and I was working through a leadership study with two other leaders. One was a volunteer like me and the other a staff member. Approximately halfway through the study we came to the chapter on mentors. The key question for that lesson was, “Who has been the most significant mentor in your life?” All three of us had the same answer: “The most significant mentor in my life has been Bill Hybels.”

Even though I no longer work on Bill’s staff at Willow Creek, even though I only interacted face-to-face with him a few times (the longest interaction lasting maybe five minutes), I can still honestly say that no individual has been more of a mentor in my life. A series of his messages helped me reconcile my head and my heart, which brought me across the line of faith in 1991. His teaching on leadership helped me greatly to co-lead the company Cheryl and I used to own. His concept of the “Kingdom Dream Team” gave me a vision for the power of like minded individuals working together for a common purpose, which was a huge part of the equipping I needed to build and lead both volunteer and staff teams at Willow. He taught me to be a coach of others, because of the way he coached me from the stage at Willow and through his message tapes. And most importantly, more than anyone else, Bill taught me what it meant to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

Who are the mentors in your life? Are they people who you have actually “done life” with, or have they influenced you long distance? Either way, I encourage you to thank God for putting those people on earth, and for using them to help shape who you are and who you are becoming.