Mid-year last year I entered a new role with my employer due to my physical limitations with spinal disc misalignment and later a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis. I work as a float culinary professional for a non-profit agency serving local seniors. I am like a substitute teacher, but in commercial kitchens, filling in when staff are absent. Sometimes I fill the head chef role, other times I’m assistant cook. In either case, the goal is to have scrumptious, nutritious food for the seniors and meals-on-wheels clients. I love to cook and bake, especially with the reward of making people smile with good eats.
I love having helpful hands and input for the various people I work with. Whether it be suggesting an add-in ingredient for a new twist on an ordinary recipe, making a delicious blueberry bread pudding with lemon sauce for fifty nostalgic-hungry seniors, getting a few loads of pots and pans run through the dishwasher, or adding entries into the inventory books, I spend my day helping people.
I have formed a friendship with one of the chefs. He has genuine, timely words for anyone he communicates with. His words and actions reflect a wisdom I can honestly say comes from above. He is boldly honest, yet tender-hearted and kind in action. And I do the same for him.
It is what the old proverb says: “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (Proverbs 27:17, NLT). It is a quiet, steady rubbing of metal on metal to get those rough edges sharpened for the tasks at hand. Security and resilience are found in relationships where iron sharpens iron.
Contrastingly, another quiet reshaping is like the smooth stones I found on the Lake Michigan beaches during my vacation. Years of the great lake’s waves flowing over a rough rock can form into a smooth stone. With some relationships you do not have years together, just a season. A knife blade over a metal honing rod straightens slight bends in the blade’s edges to make the cut smoother. In relationships where iron sharpens iron, skills and crafts are honed within a shorter length of time than a rock in a steady stream.
With my chef friend, my time working with him is limited, depending on staff vacations and illnesses as well as my limited hours allowed to work due to my own health issues. It is like country singer Trisha Yearwood’s song title and lyrics, “the song remembers when” as we just pick up where we left off the last time we worked together. I feel like I have known this man for decades, yet we just met this year. My new colleague’s personality is a combination of my deceased younger brother and an older friend full of wisdom who passed away some years ago. He and I are relaxed with each other, working side by side, literally with our hands in the same dish. We take turns giving each other directions or making suggestions for a recipe or the next food project underway.
We are comfortable enough in our relationship to challenge and refine each other. We each believe in growth, a positive approach, kind words, and becoming a better version of ourselves, professionally and in our personal traits and relationships as well. Friendships can make us better people. Hebrews 10:24, NLT says, “let us help each other to love others and to do good.” My new friend does this for me, and I believe I do the same for him.
Ecclesiastes 4:9, NIV tells us, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.” Scripture goes on to say in verse 10, “For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.” My new professional role allows me to lift up my friend. I am working this week to cover my chef friend’s absence while he is on vacation with his family, a much-needed reprieve from his everyday concerns and work. His staff respects me and my professional abilities, and I theirs. That quiet sharpening in my new friendship has been a gift in my professional life and for my personal growth.
“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” ~ Proverbs 27:17, NLT
Woman Warrior 