DAILY DEVOTIONAL
June 21 — Friendship in person
A spoken reading of this is being recorded — it will appear here soon.
June 21 — Friendship in Person
"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." — Proverbs 27:17 (KJV)
The image is physical. Two pieces of iron pressed against each other. Both come away changed. The proverb does not describe correspondence. It describes contact.
The Christian life was designed for contact. The early church met in person. Paul's letters to the Corinthians were stopgaps until he could see them again. The author of Hebrews tells the church not to neglect meeting together. The body of Christ is a body — physical, gathered, breathing the same air.
The reason this matters in June 2026 is that our default mode of friendship has slowly shifted. We message more than we visit. We watch each other's lives more than we are inside them. We have hundreds of contacts and a handful of people who would notice if we were ill.
The fix is not technological. It is the slow rebuilding of an in-person rhythm. One coffee a week with one friend. One meal in someone's actual kitchen each month. One real conversation with the person at church before the service starts. None of this scales. None of it is supposed to.
Today, identify one friend you have only seen on a screen for too long. Pick a date this week to be in the same room. Even thirty minutes. Iron sharpens iron at close range.
"A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." — Proverbs 17:17 (KJV)
May the Lord bless you and keep you.