Sunday, February 7, 2010

we are SPARTA

I have always loved to read, and grew up loving fiction. I still read plenty, but a fiction book is rare amongst all the other reading I have/want to do.

Right now I'm in the middle of a few books, and one is a historical fiction about the battle of Thermopylae, where Sparta fought the Persian empire. There is a story of a Spartan warrior comforting a Spartan youth, Alexandros, after the boy's friend died. Here is the commentary on that conversation:

Throughout this conversation the older man maintained a voice tender and solicitous with love. Nothing Alexandros could do would ever make this voice love him less or abandon him. Such is the peculiar genius of the Spartan system of pairing each boy in training with a mentor other than his own father. A mentor may say things that a father cannot; a boy can confess to his mentor that which would bring shame to reveal to his father.
Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield

This depicts so many of the truths of discipleship.
  • the discipler genuinely loves his disciple, regardless of the disciple's struggles or shortcomings.
  • the discipler is, in some sense, bound to his disciple. There is a sense of responsibility to the younger.
  • the discipler ('mentor') can and should say the difficult things.
  • the disciple can be brutally honest with his discipler, and can expect him to respond appropriately (challenge, comfort, etc).
Note: Let me be totally clear -- in no way do I believe the discipler should take the place of the parent (In case you think this sentence, 'A mentor may say things that a father cannot; a boy can confess to his mentor that which would bring shame to reveal to his father,' conveys that.)


If warriors disciple to prepare people for physical battle,
should not believers disciple to prepare people for spiritual battle?


For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6.12

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posted by sarah @ 6:37 PM

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