Dull blade, dull life

Several years back, I was in the city of Gifu in the Nagoya prefecture of Japan.  We were visiting some Japanese friends of ours there, and they took us out to a well-known sushi restaurant in the area.  The sushi was as sushi is... but the thing that we remember most was that our son, who was 3 or 4 at the time, was given a tiny bowl of tempura-fried shrimp eyeballs.  Yep. Shrimp eyeballs.  To this day, he will tell you that they were delicious and he wants more (and he's 13 now).  (This only goes to prove the old carnival rule of thumb...if you fry it, they will eat it!)

Toward the end of that trip, the father of the house took me to a very famous knife maker.  The old gentleman there had been making knives in the style of his forefathers - who had made famous samurai swords.  These forged blades were highly sought after and precious.  I am accustomed to normal Japanese conversation, but this line of vocabulary was, well, foreign to me.  I didn't understand much, but I knew this...I was supposed to pick out a "sword" for my daily use.  It scared me half to death.  I could see the prices on these fabulous blades and didn't want to make a foolish and expensive faux pas (many were costing in the thousands), so....I chose the least expensive chef's blade I could find - a mere US$120.  This knife has been a prized possession of mine ever since.  But...I was not trained in how to sharpen it, so I never have.  It is still a very sharp blade, but I know that good chefs sharpen their blades frequently.  I'm just so afraid that I'll mess it up. In the end, though, without a good sharpening, the knife will become dull.

I have, in my life, gone through many "dull" seasons....times where I am not spiritually sharp.  I tend to be a loner.  I am very happy to sit in my kitchen with my family, avoiding contact with the outside world, but that can be very problematic!  The older (and MUCH wiser) that I become, I am more keenly aware that good friends are of the utmost importance in rounding out the flavor of my own existence.  Like the many spices of my cupboard, I have some friends who are warm and comforting - like vanilla.  I have others who provide a good kick in the mundane - like cayenne.  There are still others who would almost go unnoticed in flavor if not for their vibrant color - like parsley.  BUT.. I have one friend in particular who is less like a spice and more like a tool in my life. 

Provers 27:17 says "like iron sharpens iron, so one [woman] sharpens another."  This friend is unique to me in that we push each other to be more Christlike.  Sometimes it's hard.  Sometimes it's so very easy. Always, though, there is a sharpening of the intellect through the wisdom of God.  We have supported each other in so many rough spots in our lives, and each moment has been a time of learning.  If I start a thought, she can take it to another level and vice versa.  We pray together, share the Word of God...and I find that when we talk, my spiritual senses are sharper than before we had each conversation.  What a gift!

This is the kind of friendship that I hope you have in 2011.  I hope that you will be in relationship with others that is Holy Spirit-filled and life-giving.  This is what God has intended for you, and I encourage you to spend more time praying with your friends.  I don't recommend deep-fried shrimp eyeballs...but I DO recommend that you keep your tools sharp!

Today's favorite kitchen gadget:  My mother-in-law, seeing that my many knives were dull, gave me a block set of forged steel J.A. Henckels knives for Christmas...I'm LOVING them so far! (But I resolve to have my special knife sharpened!)