Sharpen Your Axe
Larry Jones
A young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. "That depends," replied the foreman. "Let's see you fell this tree." The young man stepped forward, and skillfully felled a great tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "You can start Monday." Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by – and Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today." Startled, the young man replied, "I thought you paid on Friday." "Normally we do," said the foreman. "But we're letting you go today because you've fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you've dropped from first place on Monday to last place today." "But I'm a hard worker," the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave last, and even have worked through my coffee breaks!" The foreman, sensing the young man's integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, "Have you been sharpening your axe?" The young man replied, "No sir, I've been working too hard to take time for that!" (Author Unknown)
"If the axe is dull, and the man does not [sharpen] the edge, he must put forth more strength; but wisdom helps him to succeed."
Ecclesiastes 19:10 (Amplified)Seek and use God given wisdom to know when it is time to stop and sharpen your axe. You may be getting by right now, but it is requiring more effort. Just think how much more you could be doing with a sharper axe and that same additional effort. Or for some people, the greater effort will soon burn them out (if it has not done so already) to the point that they will be ineffective.
People that work with tools will tell you that working with a dull, unsharpened blade is more dangerous because the tool is being pushed beyond its designed limits. People can also be dangerous when pushed beyond their limits. We are often more open and susceptible to Satan’s attacks when we are tired. (Satan chose to tempt Jesus in the wilderness when Jesus was most tired.) This not only puts us in a greater danger of succumbing to Satan’s deceptive attacks, but also makes us more vulnerable to being a misused and dangerous tool that negatively impacts others. As a minimum, we can not be used in the most effective manner.