Sharpening

Today was one of recovery for me.  My fever broke sometime last night but it takes a day for me to get over stuff anymore.  So today was pretty much a loss in terms of productive work.

However, I did roll out of bed, albeit 10 minutes late, for the Tuesday morning study on the Kingdom of God.  I have mentioned this before, we live in three time zones and four different states.  We meet each Tuesday for about an hour on Skype to talk about the progress we have made in the Word that week, ministry and personal challenges, and whatever else may come up.  It is a safe, challenging place.

Yesterday I shared the challenge that came from the meeting with the former Olympic athlete.  I just got off of the phone with one of the men who is on the Tuesday morning conference call.  We talked for about 40 minutes on the reality of evil as it relates to what happened last week in Connecticut.  We do not always agree.  But we respect each other’s handle on the Word of God.  So what happens in the conversation is that we listen openly to the other person’s argument.  The result is that we are both sharpened.

We all need that desperately.  But it takes work.  The first assignment is to become one whose grasp of the Word is to be respected.  The second assignment is to seek out those who will challenge that grasp and to engage with them tenaciously.

I have some more thoughts on this that follow an athletic vein, I may share later.