We Gather Together to Sharpen One Another - Iron Sharpens Iron

In 1954, the impossible became possible.  Roger Bannister was the first to run a mile in under four minutes.  Within ten years, a high schooler ran a mile in less than four minutes.  Bannister broke the barrier and everyone else followed.  They learned that it could be done, and those who were able to train with him learned his methods on how to do it.  In 1997, two miles were ran in less than eight minutes.  The impossible keeps becoming possible.  When people believe something can be done and train with one another, what was once thought impossible can be achieved.

The same thing happened with the 100m dash.  It was thought to be impossible to run it in less than ten seconds.  That barrier was broken in 1968; now over 70 people have ran the 100m dash in less than ten seconds.  They learn from one another and break barriers that were previously thought impossible.

Last week, I wrote Why Should I Go to Church?   The point of that post was that we gather together to encourage one another and spur each other on to do loving actions for others.  In this post we are going to change gears a little and focus on how when we gather together, we can do more than we could do by ourselves.  This is the result of sharpening one another.  The writer of Proverbs wrote, "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).

What you have accomplished after hard work and struggling can easily be passed on to me if I am humble enough to learn from you and your experience.  Sometimes our greatest enemy is ourselves, our self-sufficiency and self-reliance.  We think we have to blaze our own trail and not follow down the road of those who are on the journey with us.  We become prideful and unteachable, but the key is that others can unlock doors that we can not; we can do the same for them.  Together we can accomplish more than we could as two separate people.

A healthy gathering of believers is one where the people learn from one another, sharpen one another, and encourage each other to do greater things than they would have done if left alone.  There is this saying that one's ceiling can become the next generation's floor.  I think it is true in the narrower context of daily living.  What you learn today, can be my knowledge and actions tomorrow if I am teachable. I can do what you have learned to do through years of hard work in just a short time if you are willing to share and I am willing to learn.  Let us not neglect meeting together because together we can build something greater than we could apart.