"Everybody follows somebody. Who do you follow?" Rob Bell asks in Velvet Elvis.At about 28 years-old, when my mom asked me the question, "Do you have a mentor?" my answer was, "No." I had a bunch of reasons why I didn't need one. Now I realize I was a dumb, self-sufficient punk who would rather make his own mistakes than learn from someone else's.

As a middle-aged man, I realize I don't have that kind of time to waste. I've come to see the truth of Rob Bell's statement, "Everybody follows somebody," and I've realized that Jesus and I are better off if that somebody is not me. It needs to be another flesh-and- blood human being.

Paul said, "Imitate me." He understood that while we may come to believe by hearing, we learn by doing. It's no small matter that
Jesus' first words to his disciples were "follow me." He was big on followership--it was synonymous with discipleship. "Whoever serves me follows me," he said.

Somehow in our independence-prizing culture, many of us never learn to follow, and we spend much of our lifetimes going around the same mountain. I didn't learn to follow someone else till I was in my thirties and realized I couldn't lead where I'd never gone. I was tired of following myself. Everybody follows somebody. Who do you follow?

Here's a short video clip from Rob Bell's video series called Nooma: