All of us are called to be stewards, or caretakers, of the gifts and resources we have been given. That includes our talents and abilities, our bank accounts, our calendars, and our physical wellbeing. What’s often overlooked, however, is our need to be stewards of our personal energy.
Almost 40 years ago, in an article called Anatomy of a Spiritual Leader, pastor Gordon MacDonald pointed out that there are five kinds of people who affect our level of energy on a daily basis. Some people build us up. They fill us with joy and restore our passion to keep going. Other people (as Dana Carvey’s character, Garth Algar, so memorably puts it in Wayne’s World), have an unusual capacity to suck our very will to live.
Many of us drive ourselves into energy deficits because we fail to take into account how draining certain relationships can be, even as we fail to take advantage of the kinds of relationships that faithfully restore our commitment to keep pressing on.
The good news is that personal energy is a renewable resource. MacDonald classifies the five different kinds of people with three-letter acronyms, and arbitrarily assigns energy values to them as a way of describing our need to sustain balance. They are VRPs (+3), VIPs (+2), VTPs (+1), VNPs (0), and VDPs (-1).
Each day this week we will spotlight one of those five kinds of energy-affecting relationships. Before we get started, however, we should note that no human being is objectively “stuck” in a particular category. No one has been assigned a T-shirt that says, “I am a relational black hole that consumes all the energy in every room: Run for your life!”
In fact, somebody who loves to talk, talk, talk may fill you with inspiration, even while that same person leaves others in the same conversation feeling exhausted.
So what is a VRP? MacDonald identifies that individual as a Very Resourceful Person. A VRP is someone who raises my level of energy every time we are in the same zip code. He or she rekindles my vision, restores my perspective, and (often without even trying) reassures me that life is worth living.
A Very Resourceful Person, in other words, is a mentor – one of the most precious of all human beings. A mentor might be a living person who is close at hand – a parent, grandparent, teacher, boss, or friend.
But a mentor might just as easily be an author you have never met; a public speaker whose messages you have only heard as recordings; a wise person who has been gone for centuries; or a family member whose voice still rallies you whenever you feel depressed, even from the balcony of heaven.
VRPs are life’s ultimate deep wells of courage and inspiration.
In his book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard points out that all of us learn how to live – for better or worse – from those who teach us. Each of us is somebody’s disciple. “There are no exceptions to this rule, for human beings are just the kind of creatures that have to learn and keep learning from others how to live.”
How does this learning take place? In order to effect healthy spiritual growth, God sends special teachers into our lives – men and women who by one means or another are called to demonstrate, proclaim, interpret, and model the various essentials of the Christ-following life. To climb a few feet higher on the spiritual slope, we need to receive the encouragement and the extended hands of those who are at least a few feet ahead of us.
“Solo flight” is not a value celebrated in the Bible. Spirituality is imparted and received through relationships. Joshua’s leadership lessons arrive via his association with Moses. Ruth looks to her mother-in-law Naomi. Elisha becomes the protégé of Elijah. Mary receives “problem pregnancy” encouragement and partnership in the company of her older relative Elizabeth. Many of the second generation of Christian missionaries, including Titus, Epaphras, and Tychicus, look to Paul. Apollos receives mentoring from a married couple named Priscilla and Aquila.
It’s widely known that “mentor” entered our vocabulary through Homer’s mythological epic Odyssey. Before his embarkation to the Trojan War, Ulysses places his son Telemachus in the care of a wise old man, Mentor by name. Homer reveals that Telemachus’ education goes far beyond book learning. Mentor gives the lad a healthy dose of street smarts, so that years later the son will be ready to stand beside the father in the epic final battle for their family’s survival.
Then there’s Barnabas, that remarkable VRP in the life of the apostle Paul. Even though the former persecutor Saul / Paul is mistrusted by virtually all of the earliest Christians, Barnabas displays a unique capacity to see his spiritual potential. Under this mentor’s influence, Paul is gradually able to move from the perimeter of the young church to the center. And we see no evidence that Barnabas is ever unhappy that he slowly disappears from public view because of Paul’s giant shadow. What mattered most, in the end, was that the whole world could be blessed by Paul.
Gordon MacDonald reminds us that we often make a serious personal-energy miscalculation. We take our mentors for granted, or we’re too shy to ask for their time, or we devote the lion’s share of our efforts trying to “fix” the other people in our life – the ones who tend to draw down our energy.
Take a moment today to reflect on the people who feed your soul. Ask yourself: Who is my Barnabas? Thank God for their presence in your life, and give yourself the gift of receiving their encouragement.
No matter what you’re facing this week, remember this first building block of sustaining sufficient energy to live a mission-centered life:
Mentors matter.
*************************************************
Would you like to explore previous reflections, and learn more about this ministry? Check out glennsreflections.com.
Almost 40 years ago, in an article called Anatomy of a Spiritual Leader, pastor Gordon MacDonald pointed out that there are five kinds of people who affect our level of energy on a daily basis. Some people build us up. They fill us with joy and restore our passion to keep going. Other people (as Dana Carvey’s character, Garth Algar, so memorably puts it in Wayne’s World), have an unusual capacity to suck our very will to live.
Many of us drive ourselves into energy deficits because we fail to take into account how draining certain relationships can be, even as we fail to take advantage of the kinds of relationships that faithfully restore our commitment to keep pressing on.
The good news is that personal energy is a renewable resource. MacDonald classifies the five different kinds of people with three-letter acronyms, and arbitrarily assigns energy values to them as a way of describing our need to sustain balance. They are VRPs (+3), VIPs (+2), VTPs (+1), VNPs (0), and VDPs (-1).
Each day this week we will spotlight one of those five kinds of energy-affecting relationships. Before we get started, however, we should note that no human being is objectively “stuck” in a particular category. No one has been assigned a T-shirt that says, “I am a relational black hole that consumes all the energy in every room: Run for your life!”
In fact, somebody who loves to talk, talk, talk may fill you with inspiration, even while that same person leaves others in the same conversation feeling exhausted.
So what is a VRP? MacDonald identifies that individual as a Very Resourceful Person. A VRP is someone who raises my level of energy every time we are in the same zip code. He or she rekindles my vision, restores my perspective, and (often without even trying) reassures me that life is worth living.
A Very Resourceful Person, in other words, is a mentor – one of the most precious of all human beings. A mentor might be a living person who is close at hand – a parent, grandparent, teacher, boss, or friend.
But a mentor might just as easily be an author you have never met; a public speaker whose messages you have only heard as recordings; a wise person who has been gone for centuries; or a family member whose voice still rallies you whenever you feel depressed, even from the balcony of heaven.
VRPs are life’s ultimate deep wells of courage and inspiration.
In his book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard points out that all of us learn how to live – for better or worse – from those who teach us. Each of us is somebody’s disciple. “There are no exceptions to this rule, for human beings are just the kind of creatures that have to learn and keep learning from others how to live.”
How does this learning take place? In order to effect healthy spiritual growth, God sends special teachers into our lives – men and women who by one means or another are called to demonstrate, proclaim, interpret, and model the various essentials of the Christ-following life. To climb a few feet higher on the spiritual slope, we need to receive the encouragement and the extended hands of those who are at least a few feet ahead of us.
“Solo flight” is not a value celebrated in the Bible. Spirituality is imparted and received through relationships. Joshua’s leadership lessons arrive via his association with Moses. Ruth looks to her mother-in-law Naomi. Elisha becomes the protégé of Elijah. Mary receives “problem pregnancy” encouragement and partnership in the company of her older relative Elizabeth. Many of the second generation of Christian missionaries, including Titus, Epaphras, and Tychicus, look to Paul. Apollos receives mentoring from a married couple named Priscilla and Aquila.
It’s widely known that “mentor” entered our vocabulary through Homer’s mythological epic Odyssey. Before his embarkation to the Trojan War, Ulysses places his son Telemachus in the care of a wise old man, Mentor by name. Homer reveals that Telemachus’ education goes far beyond book learning. Mentor gives the lad a healthy dose of street smarts, so that years later the son will be ready to stand beside the father in the epic final battle for their family’s survival.
Then there’s Barnabas, that remarkable VRP in the life of the apostle Paul. Even though the former persecutor Saul / Paul is mistrusted by virtually all of the earliest Christians, Barnabas displays a unique capacity to see his spiritual potential. Under this mentor’s influence, Paul is gradually able to move from the perimeter of the young church to the center. And we see no evidence that Barnabas is ever unhappy that he slowly disappears from public view because of Paul’s giant shadow. What mattered most, in the end, was that the whole world could be blessed by Paul.
Gordon MacDonald reminds us that we often make a serious personal-energy miscalculation. We take our mentors for granted, or we’re too shy to ask for their time, or we devote the lion’s share of our efforts trying to “fix” the other people in our life – the ones who tend to draw down our energy.
Take a moment today to reflect on the people who feed your soul. Ask yourself: Who is my Barnabas? Thank God for their presence in your life, and give yourself the gift of receiving their encouragement.
No matter what you’re facing this week, remember this first building block of sustaining sufficient energy to live a mission-centered life:
Mentors matter.
*************************************************
Would you like to explore previous reflections, and learn more about this ministry? Check out glennsreflections.com.
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