“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” — Romans 12:2
You can teach a person how to operate an espresso machine in three days. You can teach them how to identify a Yirgacheffe in a blind cupping in three weeks. You cannot teach a person how to see themselves differently in three months. That is mind work. That is heart work.
Notice the verb: be transformed. Passive. We do not transform ourselves. We are transformed — by something. Or rather, by Someone.
The instrument God uses is the slow renewal of how a person thinks. What we expect of ourselves. What we believe is possible. How we narrate our own past. How we read the people around us. These mental defaults are exactly what the gospel intends to renovate.
At TCA, we have learned to be patient with this. The learner who tells you they cannot do something on day one may, on day ninety, do that very thing without ceremony. They will not always notice the transformation themselves. We notice. We celebrate. We thank God.
If you are stuck in a way of thinking that diminishes you — or someone you love — do not despair. The renewal is not your job. It is the Spirit’s. Your job is to keep showing up — to scripture, to community, to honest prayer.
The mind renews. The heart follows. The life turns. This is the long, holy work of being a Christian.
Soli Deo Gloria — To God alone be the glory.
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