The #iMentor Initiative was started to honor the investment of mentors all over the world, and to encouragepotential mentors to take the initiative in starting an intentional relationship with a college student today.

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I mentor because I love seeing people thrive. I mentor because I was mentored. I mentor because mentoring is at the core of the Christian life.

I was a college student who had a plan, some abilities, and was willing to work hard. And I was on track to carry out my plan to become a physical therapist. Until I encountered several mentors. Man, did they mess up my life! Or rather, they were voices for God to mess up my life…for the better.

I can remember three different mentors, at three different times, within a span of three months, that I was asked challenging questions by:

• “Have you ever considered being a youth minister?
• “When are you going to go on staff with [your para-church ministry]?”
• “Have you ever considered seminary?”

I could easily dismiss each question with a long list of excuses, but between the three of them, I was stuck. I saw that perhaps God was in the midst of these unsettling questions from these three mentors. And I had to come up with an answer for them. And when I ran out of excuses, I realized that perhaps God’s presence in the questions would mean that God would be present in the answers, too.

Fast forward 15 years. Now I’m the one asking the unsettling questions! And I don’t just hope to unsettle, I hope to teach college students to ask three questions before they come up with all the answers themselves: Who is God? Who am I? What is God calling me to do in the world? I would have made a great physical therapist. But God’s call interrupted my plan. And now I get to be an agent for interruptions in the lives of others. There’s nothing better!

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Mentors are ordinary people who avail themselves to being used by God — in the life of another — in extraordinary ways. Check out the #iMentor page and consider how God might want to intentionally use you in the life of another. I bet you’ve got a story to share! And if you’re looking for a resource to help you in this important work, consider my new book: Shaping Their Future: Mentoring Students Through Their Formative College Years.