“Iron-sharpened Iron” (PRO 27:17)
When Clive Staples Lewis died in 1963 his friend John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wrote, “So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man my age – like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.”
The two old Brits had long been collaborators and confidants and had forged not only a remarkable literary relationship, but had also become soul brothers with deep, personal ties. Each was respected by the other as they mutually reflected on the weightier matters in imaginative ways. Both had a vast store of knowledge and a wise masterful way with words including a sharp wit that sharpened one another. (Their Oxford “Inklings” pub club became a renowned think tank for writers.)
Both men served in the UK military in WWI before returning home to serve as distinguished professors at premiere English Universities where they became accomplished academics and authors. While the older Christian became the mentor and was instrumental in helping bring his younger agnostic mentee to faith in God and in Christ, the disciple would eventually surpass his teacher according to the critics, publishers and booksellers. But though Lewis was more immediately regarded in British society with imminent prominence, he always paid homage to Tolkien as his teacher and friend. Tolkien may have been six years the senior of Lewis, but he outlived him by a decade. Now the 71 year old would miss his forever 64 year old friend for ten long years until his own death at age 81.
Such friendship never ends in God’s tomorrow, but in these days that we have to keep on living through the loss of one’s sharpening iron can often leave the other iron feeling an inevitable dullness. While the iron filings drop away from one blade’s edge as it sharpens the other, it just feels like being quickened and refined. But the loss of a trusted partner “feels like an axe-blow near the roots”.
Here’s to finding friends who are worth their mettle…and being such a friend to someone else. We can make each other better, you know. “So one man sharpens another.”
