Making Lemonade or Excuses?

In case you hadn’t noticed I added a new category above: Mentoring.  Recently I started meeting -in person- a wonderful young lady we’ll call T.  She was a freshman in one of my on campus Bible studies way back in the day.  I’m talkin’ 2004, y’all.  She’s a beautiful soul.  Additionally, I am also beginning to be mentored by York.  One of the things I want to share more here is how both of these budding mentoring relationships are going down, how you too can mentor & be mentored and what I’m learning from the resources York, T & I are using for growth.  So.  Lay back on the couch.  Let’s begin…

York has been my unofficial mentor for about a year now.  He’s married to one of my besties.  I’ve talked about York a lot before because he led me to Jesus, he discipled me & he was my InterVarsity Staff worker during my undergrad.  For 17 yrs. now he’s been like a brother to me and he introduces me as his sister.  Also, we’re both biracial so we actually look related in addition to feeling it.  While I was visiting their house the other day I asked what we needed to do to get our mentoring hoppin’!

In other words, I’m lost.  Let’s move this from unofficial to official, Mr. Moore!

Before leaving, he put two books in my hands, Leadership Next: Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture by Eddie Gibbs & The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships by Lois J. Zachary.

Last year he told me we couldn’t even begin until I bought & read, Connecting: The Mentoring Relationships You Need to Succeed in Life  by Stanley Clinton.  I bought that book and then immediately set it down where it became lost for over 9 months under a stack of Ransom’s school supplies.

As I dutifully loaded my new books into my overstuffed backpack I had a scary thought: what if I never read these & York & I never officially begin?  What if I take these books home and essentially toss them aside like I did the first?

One of my greatest fears in life is that I’ll sail through with no vim, no vigor.  No passion.  No productivity, no life change, no out-pouring, no usefulness.  In honoring one of my personal commandments to “Be Grace,” I’m learning to accept that I’m driven.  I’m driven by results, but I’m also driven by my core belief that I am running the race set before me.  Since running itself has never come easy to me the similarities between ‘running’ the race of life and actual running collide quite nicely: ‘ish is hard. The fear that I’m not running fast or hard enough towards growth sometimes pushes me on toward health and at other times is a bully.

Today, I know that this particular drive is healthy.  I don’t want to waste the opportunity to be mentored by York who only takes a handful of folks under his wing each year and not at all individually like I stand to receive if I can get my bootay in gear.

The truth of Eminem’s words “you betta’ lose yourself…in the moment…you betta’ never let it go, opportunity comes once in a lifetime…” ring truer to me today than they ever have.  As I look out on the horizon I see my 40’s fast approaching and it only takes but a second to recall all the missed opportunities of my 20’s.  While I’m quick to want all the perks and benefits of being a trained, seasoned leader sometimes I am -inexplicably- snagged by the few minor administrative details it takes to get there.

Hi.  I’m Grace Biskie, I’m 36 & I’m in career flux.  Life has thrown me lemons & I’ve hurled them at myself specifically in my eyeball & paper cuts.  But here someone has handed me a grinder, a bowl to store the seeds, several Splenda packets and a clean pitcher filled with ice to put my lemonade with two chilled tumblers to drink out of with a fancy colorful straw.

As I was writing this post, York was packing up his stuff to head to the airport.  He popped his back in the door and asked me to do him a favor.  “Will you grab a pitcher of water and water the front and back flower boxes?”

Yep, absolutely, York.  I will grab that pitcher of water by the horns.

I will water something.

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(Written a few weeks ago during my blog fast.  Update & good news: I got a job!  More on that later)