Parents, are you a guru? Not the Buddhist/Hindu spiritual guide, but a teacher or expert in some area. “Gooroo,” kinda sounds like a new pasta sauce. Up until about 5 years ago I had the privilege of coaching some great young leaders in cheerleading and gymnastics for 30+ years in some wonderful gyms in just about every city where I served as a pastor. It was an opportunity to get to know more people in my community. In the last gym, I had the rare opportunity to work with a gym coach who was a gymnastics guru… he knew so much about gymnastics technique, he could tell you exactly how to complete every trick… where your feet start, where your hips go, where your arms go, your head position, where to look. He could also tell you how to fix any part of the trick that was not quite right and what muscles to strengthen to make it better. He was amazing… he went to Béla Károlyi’s camp for coaches and was evaluated as one of the top coaches at the camp. As I watched and learned from him, he taught me some coaching tricks for tumbling. I had been around some great coaches before but he was eager to share his best tricks with every coach… he wanted everyone in the gym to get better. Many young cheerleaders learned a back handspring from the coaching techniques this man taught me, including some on my daughter’s cheer squad. A couple of my students became coaches themselves and passed the tumbling tricks on to their students. This is how our faith life should be… those who have more faith experience and maturity discipling those who are not yet as mature. In faith, we don’t arrive at maturity as soon as we begin following Jesus, just like people don’t show up at the gym doing elite tumbling on their first day. God puts us in relationships with people to teach us, grow us, correct us sometimes, and comfort us when things go wrong. The plan is that as we mature and grow we will coach and disciple others in faith.
Paul lets us know this plan when he is writing to the congregation of one of the early churches. He also lets us know we don’t do it alone, Jesus has to coach and disciple us as we pass down the faith to the next generation. He says, “We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” Colossians 1:28-29 (CSBBible) If God has trusted you with some maturity and experience in the Faith, listen closely to see whom He would have you coach. This will definitely include your own children and maybe your grandchildren. So, go be a guru!
Hang in there people! God is with us! I’m praying for you all!
