The Ultimate Mentor

As a teenager I was sitting in an auditorium listening to a speaker relate his life experience. Thinking about it now, it reads like a fairy tale. As a troubled youth, he felt he had no direction and was wandering spiritually. Then, a mentor came into his life and lifted him out of his troubles in the light. In that moment, I felt like I was not wandering spiritually: I knew who I was and how to get there, so the only other person in the story I felt like I could aspire to was the mentor. I wanted so badly to become a mentor: the kind of person who helped others turn a corner in their lives that they would be forever grateful for and never forget. I wanted to be remembered.

Years down the road, I had a conversation in my backyard with my father-in-law about wanting to change the world but feeling trapped in my current situation and not knowing how to fulfill my dream. He replied that in his studies in Child Development and Psychology he’d learned that the people that actually have the most impact in our lives are not the ones we read about or see on television, but the human beings in our community–the ones we see face-to-face on an everyday basis.

A few years later, I learned that in the medieval times, poets and musicians would often sign their work “Anonymous.” This was earth-shattering to me, as a person who always sought recognition for my work. Why would anyone not want to be remembered? Because they truly believed that the poems and works were inspired by God and that inspiration flowed through them, from Him. That they were the conduit of His knowledge, ideas, etc. They wouldn’t take credit for God’s work.

This way of thinking was also seen in ancient times. The Odyssey starts with the line, “Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys, after he had sacked Troy’s sacred citadel.”

“Tell me muse,” instead of, “this is my work, aren’t I smart?” They believed they were capturing and expressing something beyond and outside of them, not that it was entirely their own endeavor, originating from their own genius.

The recently deceased writer, Madeline L’Engle, received the Newbery Medal for her book “A Wrinkle in Time.” In her acceptance speech she said, “This is the moment when a writer is spoken through, the moment that a writer must accept with gratitude and humility, and then attempt, as best he can, to communicate to others. A writer of fantasy, fairy tale, or myth must inevitably discover that he is not writing out of his own knowledge or experience, but out of something both deeper and wider …I can’t possibly tell you how I came to write it (A Wrinkle in Time). It was simply a book I had to write. I had no choice. And it was only after it was written that I realized what some of it meant.”

This was a huge paradigm shift for me. During my adolescence, I thought I was what mattered: what I did and who I affected with my actions. However, what if instead of taking this stance, I lived my life as if I truly took the name of Christ upon me, as if I was living my life as a window to his face, to his love, and to his mission? What if, to some extent, I took myself out of the equation and realized that Christ is the ultimate mentor? Yes, I can do good for others, but what if I changed the focus from my good works to fulfilling His work on this Earth.

As I have adjusted my mindset, however imperfectly,the past few years, I have noticed less anxiety and anger. I am not as “put out” when something doesn’t go my way, when I need to sacrifice a little of my time or when I don’t get recognized for something I did. Christ lived his whole life serving and thinking of others, and paradoxically, the best way that I can affect change in others’ lives is to lose my life for Jesus’ sake. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it” and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (KJV Matthew 16:25-26)

I am not as worried about changing the world anymore—a task much too large for me to take on anyway—and am more concerned with being a candle not hidden under a bushel to those in my family and my community, those I have contact with on a daily basis. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (KJV Matthew 5:15) God is in charge, He is in control, and my job is to come unto him, take His name upon me and endure to the end.

Alicia Anderson is a mother of three and a lover of learning. She is constantly finding too many new books to read and more rabbit trails to follow. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.