Over 15 years ago I attended a seminary in the Central Valley of California. As a seminary student I experienced an interesting phenomena. Each morning when I and other students arrived there were Winchell donuts in the student lounge. I was curious who might be the provider of these donuts. One day I met the gentleman who brought the donuts. We sat down with some coffee and donuts and he told me this story.

"Many years ago I was a raisin farmer south of Fresno. I had several hundred acres of grapes. I was successful by our community's standards. One year it was time for me to hire people who would cut the grapes. I called all around the county. I tried everything. No one came. I was deeply troubled by this. I thought I was a fair man. I paid what everyone else paid for grape cutters. So one night in the middle of all of this I had a dream. In the dream the Lord came to me and spoke to me.

'You have stolen from me.'
'Lord, how have a stolen from you.'
'You have not paid my people fair wages.'
'Lord, I pay what everyone else pays.'
'I have many people here. If you will pay what I tell you, I will show you.'

I was troubled by this dream. But I wanted to follow the Lord, so I thought about this dream. The next night I went to bed again. I had the same dream. This went on for a week. As you can imagine, the Lord had my attention! So the next day, I called the labor pool and told them I was paying much more. That day I had my crew there to cut grapes. That very day I had a telephone call from a man with a Spanish accent. He asked me to come to his house that evening. I went there - the house was filled from wall to wall with people. The man told me that all of these people wanted to learn more about Jesus and that I was going to do it! Now I am no preacher. I never even taught a Sunday School class. I didn't even know Spanish! Suddenly I understood the dream. If I would be fair with my wages, not fair as the community decided but by how God determined fairness, he would open the hearts of the Mexican people to the Gospel. That was many years ago and now there are churches all around Reedley filled with believers."

So I said, "So tell me what has this to do with these donuts we have everyday?'
'Well, one of the young boys who was in one of those home Bible studies, became a Christian, went to Fresno Pacific College, went into business and now owns all of these Winchell donut franchises. He gives me the day old donuts and I bring some of them here to the Seminary."

Many years ago there was a mountainous road with many twists and turns. Tourists flocked to the see the scenery. Unfortunately many of them were unaccustomed to driving in mountainous conditions. There was a little village at the end of the 'scenic' drive. The residents noticed that many people were injured on the road. They gathered and build a small hospital to treat the accident victims. As time went on they built a nicer building. They enticed one of the best ER doctors in the country to join the trauma team. She was attracted as much by the scenery as by the challenge of the work. One day a young teacher moved to town. He was attracted to the climate and scenery as well. He feel in love with the town. He was invited to join the hospital board. He heard the statistics of the many accidents which created customers for the hospital. He was troubled by what he was reading and seeing. He began to explore how the scenic route which was creating all these victims could be made safer - so there would be less accident victims. He visited with highway engineers, local politicians, state highway officials. He began to draw up a plan to build a safer road which would still capture the beauty of the area. Hearing of this activity the local hospital board and the head ER doctor began to campaign against him. Rumors were spread in the town maligning his character. It quickly became evident that this teacher's efforts to create a safer scenic route through the mountains would potentially seriously impact the economic stability of the community. After a few years, the young teacher gave up on his plan and moved away. The community continues to thrive - built on the victims of a dangerous scenic drive.

Mentoring people is such a rewarding experience. I believe the Biblical principle is that men should disciple men; women should disciple women. I base this on the teaching of Titus. So I focus on men and my wife, June, focuses on women.

A few years ago, I was lead to mentor a man who was struggling with his walk with God. Jim had been through several relationships. He was in a job change. Jim and I met weekly for almost two years. Weekly we met to talk about listening to God, obeying what we believed God was saying to us, sharing our faith with others, applying our faith to our relationships with people. We met to talk about these questions as we read the Bible:

What did this passage teach you about God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)?
What did this passage teach you about yourself?
Was there a promise to claim?
Was there a command to obey?

Each week Jim brought profound insights into his heart and God's heart. Often these insights were written in the form of poems and prayers. More and more God began to transform Jim's heart and life.

After Jim spent these many weeks with me, he announced one day that he felt that God was calling him to join a church west of our city. Was I angry? No! This was the moment God was calling Jim to. A few months later Jim called to tell me that the pastor of this church had talk to him about leading the mens' ministry in this church. The pastor had seen a man who was doing with other men what I had done with Jim. Jim was discipling men one by one just has I had done for him. A few years later, Jim called to tell me that he was leading a men's ministry of over 250 men!

I believe that each of us need to find someone in our lives who we can mentor - someone who will go and mentor others. That is the Biblical principle!

I notice that many of us are collectors. One of my friends collects dolls. Another old cars. And another train sets. Many years ago I had a friend who collected what she called 'jackasses' (little donkeys) - she had over 500 from all over the world! One collects frogs. Still another collected stamps - he gave me his entire collection! I have not attempted to add to it or keep up with it. One of my clients collects 'magic' cards and told me that some now get $6,000 on EBay!

Ok, I hear it already - OKay, AZRON what do you collect? I collect books! You really don't want to know how many I have - probably over 3,000 feet of bookshelf space filled with books. I long ago lost count! It is so bad that sometimes I buy a book only to find that when I get home I already have it!

For silliness and for humor I collect Mickey Mouse stuff - mugs, pins, etc. I also have a collection of Mickey Mouse ties (please don't send anymore ).

Back to the book thing - I can find all kinds of reasons to justify my book addiction, er, I mean, collecting. After all I do have a full-time counseling practice. And I try to be a serious follower of Jesus and I sometimes teach others about Jesus. And because I teach regularly at a university I need to keep up with the latest research in several fields (I teach in more than one discipline). I can always justify visiting Amazon.com at least once a week and putting in an order. (I actually managed to go to a Borders bookstore a few weeks ago and leave empty-handed!) After all my books are like a mechanic's tools - you may not use all of them everyday - but you will eventually use them . Thanks to the IRS I can write off most of them. But are those really a good reasons to have that many books?

I have met teachers and ministers who teach and preach in some pretty primitive settings. They manage to do their work without thousands of books!

God is talking to me about being a steward - that is using my money (and shelf space) wisely.

How about you? Do you ever struggle with these kinds of issues?

I subscribe to Neil Anderson's Daily Thoughts. I found this one on his thought for this date: 8-20-06:

"I think it is better to prove ourselves to God rather than demand He prove Himself to us. We are the ones being tested, not God. "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15)."

While we can never prove to God that we are good enough (I like to tell people Jesus is good enough for me so I can be good enough for God.). At the same time, Anderson's words do challenge me to think about making sure that I follow hard after God today. I think his point is that too many people who believe in God are much too busy asking God to prove Himself to them (God heal ___________ or else!) than they are concerned with asking themselves if they are listening and obeying God. So go out today and show the world (and God) that you are a follower of Jesus - begin by loving those in your human family and in your faith family.