“That which we learn with delight we never forget.” Aristotle “
Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.” John Crosby
Another semester ends. I have now taught 15 years at SEBTS. Amazing. Am I really that old? Thousands of students, so many friendships, so much learned, and a lot of hyperactive lecturing on my part. Add to that the gallons of coffee, the seasons of prayer, the time in the streets sharing Christ, and I have to say I really have the best job on earth.
This has been a very good semester in so many ways. I see so much passion in students. I love teaching. But more than that I love teaching students. But I consider my role as a teacher only about 50% what I do in the classroom. It is the most important 50% (that is for those of you who crunch numbers, just to annoy you). But those times in my office, at the coffee shop, those scheduled and unplanned meetings matter just as much. This Saturday I am doing a picnic with my students, just because I love being with them.
I believe in the importance of time well spent. We are all busy, and I am too busy. So I constantly look for times to spend with students. I almost never see students at night because I am ruthlessly protective of family time. Some days I think I could schedule appointments 30 minutes at a time, 40 hours a week, and I would never catch up. But I value the times I do have with students.
This semester has also been hard in some ways. My precious bride of 28 years has been working through some significant treatment for medical issues. My students have been singularly wonderful in their patience, their prayers, and their kindness. I have at times not been as available to students as I would have liked, but I love my wife far more than I love students 
.
There is one place outside class that has been of great blessing to me. I call it informal mentoring, and I am writing a little ebook on that just now. I am referring to spending time with students talking about life and godliness in the course of the normal patterns of my life.
Examples:
–In the past couple of weeks 6 different young men have carried me to or from the airport, giving us 30-40 minutes to visit. What a delight to hear their stories and to try to answer their questions.
–I went on a trip to Greenville, NC, to speak at an event, where I took 5 students with me. I hate to drive, and I surely hate to drive somewhere by myself. So students not only accompany me, I put them to work . But we also have great convos along the way. Sometimes they are so good I forget to give directions and we get lost and…well, never mind.
Times like those take no time from my family but allow great opportunities for community and growth. But I did not do a small group outside of class this semester as I normally do. That was a mistake I think. I had a few men I planned to meet with in some regular format, but I failed at that. I enjoy the discipline of meeting students in a setting not set up by a course syllabus.
Do you have times in your life when you could involve others in your schedule that would not take you away from your family or important responsibilities, but would yet allow you time to pour into another person? We waste a lot of time by simply failing to use the time we have well in the lives of others.
This semester has not quite ended and I am already excited about the fall. New opportunities abound: a great big crop of new students, for instance. I already know there will be students I meet that I will become close to and will in some way mentor outside the formal classroom. I do not even know them, but it will happen, and that is exciting. I will teach a course with Nathan Finn, a younger colleague and dear friend. I like new things.
I will take students with me on this trip or that, and will find other ways to spend time with them. And perhaps best of all, I will have a small group again, but this time it will be composed of students who not only are at SEBTS, but are also members of my home church. Much more better.
Jesus fed thousands and taught multitudes. He sent out 70. But he poured himself into 12, and particularly into 3. I know my greatest legacy will not be in the big churches where I preach, but in the 12. Or the 3. So I am constantly looking for those.
Your legacy will be in the few, those God allows you to shape more than just their minds, but to actually turn their trajectory of life in a direction more gospel-aligned. That, my friend, is a real education.
Well said.
I love that insight. The real difference we’ll make with our lives will be in the deep relationships we have, not so much in the many relationships.
I often look at Jesus’s example too. In each situation we see him in, he’s focused on the person or the people he’s with even though he was responsible for the entire world. That right there is a great lesson.
“Your neighbor is the one you’re with. Your world is the one you’re with.”
-Marshall Jones Jr.