Day 4: Sharpened

Picture a crew foreman named Marcus. Forty-one. Married, two boys, deacon at his church. The guy everybody calls when something breaks. Always "doing good, brother."

Picture one of his guys, a young roofer named Tyler, twenty-three. For a few weeks Tyler has been showing up late. Red eyes some mornings. He has stopped eating lunch with the crew and sits in his car instead.

Marcus notices. But he has a schedule to keep, and honestly, he does not want to get into it. So for three weeks Marcus says nothing but, "Let's go, Tyler, we're burning daylight."

Then it is a Friday. The crew is loading the trailer. Tyler is up on the roof alone pulling tarps, and he just stops. He sits down on the ridge with his back to everybody.

Marcus calls up. Nothing. Calls again. Nothing. Something in his gut goes cold. He climbs the ladder.

Tyler is staring at nothing. Marcus sits down next to him on the warm shingles. Then he asks the question he has avoided for three weeks. "Tyler. How are you really doing?"

The kid breaks. His girlfriend left and took the baby out of state. He is three months behind on his truck. He drinks every night to sleep. He says, flat and quiet, that some nights he does not see the point of any of it.

Marcus does not have a speech. He puts his hand on the back of Tyler's neck the way his own father used to, and says, "Okay. You're not doing this by yourself anymore."

They sit there until sundown. Then Marcus takes him home for dinner. The next week Marcus goes with him to a counselor at church.

Here is the part Marcus tells nobody for a long time. He was not fine either. Money tight, marriage coasting, Bible closed for two years, and not one man knew. He had been so busy being the guy everybody called that nobody ever called him.

That night he texted an old friend from church. "Can we get breakfast Saturday?"

Iron sharpening iron is not gentle. It is metal grinding on metal. A blade does not get sharp left alone in a drawer.

Most men are lonely and do not know it. We have buddies, but very few of us have a man who knows the truth about our life and is allowed to say something about it. We stay "good, brother," and slowly we go dull. A dull blade is dangerous. So is an isolated man.

Jesus did not do ministry alone.

Do not wait until a man is sitting alone on the ridge. If you see a guy pulling away, showing up late, going quiet, that is your ladder. Climb it today. The worst that happens is an awkward minute.

Text one man today: "How are you really doing?" If he asks you back, tell him the truth. If you or he is in a dark place like Tyler was, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) today.

Lord, I have been "fine" for too long. Give me brothers who sharpen me, and the humility to let them. Show me the man near me sitting alone on the ridge, and make me one who climbs the ladder. Amen.

Brett

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.