No longer my mentor but my friend

Yesterday I had a long visit with the man who became my mentor during graduate school and who guided me through my PhD research and dissertation. I used to think he had all the answers to any theological question I asked about God or about any biblical passage. Since my area of concentration was on the Greek text of the New Testament, he and I would engage then in long discussions about the grammatical and syntactical use of certain words and the implications of those Greek terms for theological interpretation. However, as time went on and as I studied and read on my own, I gradually moved away from the views and perspectives that had shaped my understanding of God for so long. Yesterday in my conversation with him I realized something that I have known for a long time. He is no longer my mentor. I am thrilled to have found my own informed way of thinking. He and I are now good friends and we will continue to enjoy dialogues on points of agreement and disagreement. For instance, yesterday we probed the historical and literary evidence around the question: “how on earth did Jesus become God?” We agreed on some things and disagreed on other issues, but what matters to me most is the respect we have for each other.