Have you ever tried to use a dull knife to cut steak, or chicken, or even bread?
It’s useless, right? You might as well pick up whatever you were trying to cut and rip it with your bare hands.
Because when a knife gets dull, it can’t fulfill its designed purpose.
Use makes a knife dull.
Life makes us dull.
We get distracted. We fall into routines and habits. We go through the motions. We stop pursuing our dreams. We tuck our to-do list in a drawer and sit down on the couch with a bag of chips. We give up on things when the going gets tough.
Like knives, we
need to stay sharpened.
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
– Proverbs 27:17
See, on its own, iron is actually pretty soft. So, it’s mixed with carbon to make it stronger. And that fusion can actually make it up to 1,000 times stronger than it is on its own.
You’re thousands of times stronger with God than you are on your own. But you can still be dull and ineffective.
God puts people in your life to sharpen you.
He puts people in your life to speak the truth to you, to file you, to sharpen
you. He uses people who have walked stuff out; people who have been down the path already; people who are a little bit “sharper” than you are—to get you to think, and dream bigger, and become the person He has created you to be.
And that’s where things can get messy and uncomfortable.
Because when you rub two blades of iron together, the edges do get sharper, and the iron pieces do become more effective at doing their jobs, but there are also some other things that happen in the process.
There’s heat, and sparks, and friction, and filing, and pounding…
And we don’t want to be uncomfortable. We don’t want to be pushed. We don’t want to engage in the sharpening process.
Your wife asks you if you’re going to take the trash out, because you said you’d take care of it.
Heat.
A mentor asks you how you’re following through on a goal you made.
Filing.
Your small group leader asks you if you did your homework for the week.
Friction.
A friend asks you how you’re doing with your workout…not yelling at your kids…staying off your phone…
Sparks.
It can get ugly.
But you need those people. You need people in your corner who will challenge you to run your race and engage in the process. So you can be put to good use.
2 Timothy 2:21 says, “Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.”
Dull iron isn’t effective. It can’t do what it was created to do, let alone be “an instrument for special purposes.”
But sharp iron is effective. It can be used for special purposes—as a tool for building up (the Kingdom of God) or as a weapon used for tearing down (the kingdom of darkness).
You and I are to engage in the sharpening process so we can do both—build up the Kingdom of God and tear down the kingdom of darkness.
And you need people in your life to help, to bring the heat and the sparks, the filing, the friction, and the pounding.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says,
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Life wasn’t meant to be lived alone.
Engage the process so you can stay sharp and run the race God has called you to run.