Part 6: As Iron Sharpens Iron

Chapter 1: Letter to Grammy

“The freedom of the other person includes all that we mean by a person’s nature, individuality, endowment. It also includes his weaknesses and oddities, which are such a trial to our patience, everything that produces frictions, conflicts, and collisions among us. To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept and affirm it, and in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy in it.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together. (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1954) Pg 101.

Photo by Elizaveta Kushnirenko on Unsplash

The Bridge Room 111									June 11, 2020
515 Garden Plaza Court
Post Falls, ID 83854

Dear Grammy Phillips,
	Oh wow! I’ve re-read your last letter six times now, and each time I read it, I feel like I’m seeing more. I’ve been rushing around to get to the next thing because I thought the next thing would give me relief. I thought that I’d be okay after school ended, I’d be okay if my kids just behaved, I’d be okay if I could be alone for a day.
	But it’s not true. The moment I read what you wrote, I knew it wasn’t true. Being alone isn’t all I need. I know because I get moments alone and they never do the trick. I always want more. So that means that what I really want is something else. You said, it’s God himself that I want and I must die to believing that it’s something else. I'm still trying to understand what that means.
	In the meantime, I feel the need to confess something to you. I haven’t been obeying the rules. I didn’t stay in my house during the first two weeks of COVID. I didn’t even own a mask until April. I try walking out of the grocery store with more milk than they allow. I let my children play on the playground equipment even though it’s taped off. I took a trip to the beach when I heard they were closed. And I don’t use hand sanitizer, except if I look up statistics, then I use it for several days. Does this make me a bad person? 
	When I think about elderly people, like you, and I imagine that my actions may cause someone like you to die, I feel terribly guilty. But Grammy, up until I got your letter, I thought I would go crazy if I didn’t rebel. I thought I needed to be ornery because God didn’t design me with the ability to handle close quarters with small children. Now, I’m not so sure. If all I really need is Jesus, how do I get him? I accepted Jesus when I was little, and I read the Bible once a week, sometimes more. But it’s not doing the trick. Please let me know how I get more Jesus.
	Until then, I’ll do what you suggested and stop listing my accomplishments as blessings. I’ll try to think of what God has done instead.

Love,
	Angela Phillips