As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17).

In my first year at Bowling Green State University, I got to know this guy named Andy Smith.  He was a couple of years older than I was.  He had his own car.  He lived off-campus.  All of this made him very cool.  And yet he took an interest in me.  He became my friend.  Once a week, he would come to my room at the dormitory where I was staying, and we’d walk together out to the parking lot where his car was sitting.  And then we’d drive off-campus to Subway, where we’d have lunch together.  I always got the cold-cut trio, and we’d sit in the bright-yellow booths at Bowling Green’s Subway restaurant and talk about life.  We talked a little bit about sports and television -- but mostly about God and the Bible.  He’d ask me what I had been reading from the Bible and what I thought about it.  He’d tell me about what he had been learning as well.  We’d also talk about applying our faith to everyday situations.  We’d ask each other questions about the girls we were seeing, our jobs and classes, and our roommates.  It was awesome!  It was so good for my life.  It made spirituality real and applicable and relational and cool.

My second year at BGSU, Andy and I helped to organize a group of guys that we called the Breakfast Club.  We’d wake up at 8:00 in the morning (the “crack of dawn” for college students) and meet up in the lobby of the Offenhauer Towers (one of the biggest dormitories on campus).  Basically, we’d all just sit around to make sure that all four or five of us were there -- me, Andy, Jason, Turbo, and sometimes Jonas -- and then we’d all retreat to quiet little corners throughout the lobby, where we’d each start the day with reading our Bibles, journaling, and praying.  Around 8:45, we’d all meet up again and go get breakfast at the cafeteria -— talking about what we had learned (and about whatever else we wanted to talk about) —- before heading off to class for the day.  Again, this was a huge spiritual development in my life, learning to start off my day by spending time with God.  Experiencing the benefits of that on the individual level, but also getting to do it together with other guys that I really enjoyed being together with.

But in my third year at Bowling Green State University, Andy moved away.  He got a job in Toledo and basically moved out of my life (we still keep in touch a little bit, actually, but still...).  When Andy left, I didn't know what to do, to keep developing myself spiritually.  He had been the catalyst for so much spiritual growth in my own life; so how was that supposed to work without him?  I felt kind of lost, spiritually.  Yes, Andy had introduced me to some other guys my age, and of course there were some opportunities for spiritual development through those relationships.  But I thought:  “Aren’t I supposed to have someone older, wiser, and more spiritually mature?"  In Bowling Green, though, it was tricky.  There just weren’t enough “older, wiser, more spiritually mature” people to go around!  We were all a bunch of college students!  I remember feeling very bitter and disillusioned about this.  I felt like I was being ignored by the church leadership and left to rot, spiritually.

But in the midst of this disillusionment, I felt like God spoke to me.  The message was very subtle, but I started to get the feeling that I had developed some misunderstandings about how spiritual development was supposed to work.

I realized that I could go on pouting about my lack of an obvious spiritual mentor and create a self-fulfilling prophecy about spiritually going to rot... Or I could take action and start applying some of the lessons that I learned through my experiences with Andy, the Breakfast Club, and my own times with God.  I was 21 years old.  And I do remember thinking it was kind of ridiculous that I couldn’t find anyone older or more mature than me, to help with the whole "spiritual development" thing -- but that was the hand that I had been dealt, so I should go along with it.  I didn’t feel like I was very qualified to be initiating much of anything.  But there were these two first-year students involved with our church.  Their names were Bryan and Matt.  They lived in Kohl Hall, which was a dormitory where I had lived for my second year.  And since they were a few years younger than me, I figured like I might have something to offer them, if nothing else.  On top of that, they were nice guys, who shared some of the same interests that I did (sports, music, etc.).  Bryan was kind of a goofy guy, and Matt smoked a bit too much marijuana -- but they were Christians who were trying to grow and develop.

So I decided to try an old “Andy Smith Maneuver” on them and invite them out for coffee (picking them up with my car and driving them off-campus).  I took them to Cosmo’s Café and introduced them to this idea of strategic relationships built around the idea of spiritual development.  We talked about the Bible.  We talked about our day-to-day lives.  We spent time praying for each other.  And we basically just became friends.  Awhile later, we even revived the Breakfast Club with a new group of guys meeting in the Kreischer Quadrangle each morning.  Now, looking back on those years, I consider it to be one of the periods of my life in which I experienced the greatest spiritual growth and well-being.  Ironically, Bryan and Matt became kind of like spiritual mentors to me, even as I was in the process of trying to develop them!  They really did provide meaningful accountability and spiritual stimulation.  And it wasn’t because they were older, wiser, or more spiritually mature —- but simply because they had the Spirit of God living inside them.  We mentored each other, as we lived in lived life together.  Through those relationships and my own personal connection with God, I felt like the Bible came to life as I read it; I could sense that my prayers were tapping into something big and eternal and powerful; and I felt God’s Spirit growing within me during those couple of years, right before and right after graduation from BGSU.

Looking back, I can see how those experiences taught me the truth of Proverbs 27:17:  "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."  It's not about the "curriculum" or the "faculty" who's available to help guide the process of spiritual development; it's about life-on-life interaction and accountability.  God works in the context of relationships.  We sharpen each other, to be used for God's Kingdom.  It's an incredibly simple -- yet incredibly powerful -- spiritual dynamic.  One that I hope to keep as a central part of my life for the rest of my days...