I had a realization recently about discipleship, or mentoring. I used to think discipleship was all about making a difference in someone else’s life. Investing in them. Transferring wisdom and experience, helping through difficult times, celebrating the wins and grieving the losses. 
To some extent, all of that is part of discipleship. However, there are much larger aspects that I am becoming aware of. They were right there all the time, I just never really saw them or considered them.
I thought that my success in discipling/mentoring others would be measured by the day the person I mentored was able to share publicly something along these lines,
“I remember when (my dad, my boss, my co-worker, my friend, my neighbor, this random stranger) said these words to me (fill in the blank with wisdom), or shared this experience (fill in the blank) or modelled this principle (fill in the blank)…and here is how my life is different because of it.”
While that might seem prideful, it really was never intended to be. I am the product of many people investing in me over my lifetime. I simply want to return the favor.
Lately, I am measuring the fruits of my discipleship and/or mentoring efforts a little differently. That measurement is starting to look something like this – When I see someone I have been investing in saying something awesome, doing something awesome, or being something awesome, and I can’t quite figure out where it came from. Was it me? Was it them? Was it someone else? Was it God in them?
When the lines are blurred; when I can’t really figure out the root cause, that is when I really see the fruit of my investment. Because it is all of those (me, them, someone else, God), and only one of those that made the difference. It is ultimately God within them, within me, within their other mentors, that is getting the job done.
I am also beginning to see fruit in failure. If the people that Jesus discipled 24×7 made mistakes like crazy, I should expect the same. I am not a better mentor than Jesus. Jesus had the vision to see that a successful life is built from bricks not only made of successes, but of failures as well. Each brick of failure cemented in with the proper mortar makes the structure bigger, stronger and able to withstand more pressure.
If what I believe about the Bible, and about callings, and about how God wired up the universe is true, then discipleship should look blurry. Not only blurry from the perspective of whose investment has made the difference, but also blurry in terms of who is the mentor and who is the mentee.
My interpretation of scripture, and the nature of God tells me that we are really all mentees under one mentor. We are all being discipled by the one. It’s an iron sharpening iron process. When I give, I also receive. It is how God wired up the universe to be. The more I give, the more I receive. The more I sow, the more I reap. Seems simple, but at the same time it is very profound.
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