Bob Smith, mentor and friend

Bob Smith, a good friend and mentor, passed away a couple of weeks ago. It was such a privilege to know and serve with this godly man, even if it was for a relatively short amount of time. Bob was my boss at LifeBridge Christian Church for a short time. During our time working together, he taught me many things, most importantly to me, Bob had the guts to mentor me when others kept their distance (I am not always a good mentee!) . He took great joy in stretching people and growing them in service to God and one another. He was truly a gentle giant. Bob was also a great teacher. During one of our last mentoring conversations before he left the church staff to spend more time with family as he battled cancer, Bob shared a final bit of wisdom with me.

Bob's Fable: The Red Flag
There once was a boy who was in charge of communicating from one village to another. When there was impending danger, the village would raise a red flag to warn the others nearby. The boy in charge of raising the red flag was very attentive to his post. He showed up every day, he made sure the flag looked nice and he was ready. He was so serious about his job that he would often times raise the red flag when he "thought" he saw something coming in the distance. His intentions were good. He was not crying "wolf." He just jumped the gun from time to time. In fact, he raised the red flag so often, the surrounding towns stopped paying attention to the flag from this particular village. And eventually, people in his own village didn't notice the red flag when danger really was on the horizon. The moral is that it is ok to raise the red flag "once in a while" but of it's raised all the time no one pays attention any more.

Bob had the ability to see everyone as a work in progress and never hesitated to speak into my life encouragement as well as hard truths. I'll appreciate our teaching moments forever.