As long as I have been walking with the Lord – since I was 13 years old – God has always been working on something inside of me, whether my thought life, my behaviors, or my heart. There is never a point where we have arrived at maturity. TC students can get the idea that once they finish the program they are finished; they are all fixed, fully mature and ready to take on the world.

Graduation from TC does not mean that all of your issues and problems are dealt with and everything is going to be smooth sailing from here on. I wish that were true! Rather, in one year of TC the foundation has merely been laid for building on. For many of us, ok wrong word – ALL of us, there is a deeper work of healing, purifying, strengthening, direction and mission that God is doing in our lives.

To help the students build the understanding of lifelong sanctification into their hearts and    minds we must model it in our own lives. God is working on and in us and we are simply authentic with what God is dealing with us about in our lives today. If we act like we don’t have any problems or struggles, or that the Holy Spirit is not convicting and teaching us we are modeling the wrong message to our students. We are telling the students that once you are through the program that you’re through growing and you don’t have to deal with issues anymore.

Keep growing, that’s the message. And be real about it. I’ve tried to live that because I really mean it and feel it. I’ve told the student’s, “Hey guys, I’m having a really bad time today with my attitude: it’s wrong and I know it. Will you forgive me and pray with me?” And I would have the students pray for me right then and there and then at times talk it out some more with them.

Take a look at David in the Psalms. Talk about authentic! I’m uncomfortable with how authentic he is sometimes. Psalms 51:10-13 frames our heart and mind as TC staff members in a way that prepares us for authentic ministry; verse 10-12 – Lord do your work in me and THEN verse 13 – then and only then will I be ready to teach rebels your ways.

Psalm 51:10-13 (NLT)

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take you Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels,  and they will return to you.