"Staying Sharp"

Did you hear about the two lumberjacks who challenged each other to see which one could cut down more trees in one day? At daybreak the first one began furiously chopping down trees. He worked up a sweat & by noon he had cut down 16 trees.

Meanwhile the other lumberjack was way behind because he took the first two hours to sharpen his axe. As he sharpened it his challenger laughed at him thinking he was doomed to loose the race because of all that wasted time.

That is when things became interesting. By early afternoon the first lumberjack was slowing down. It took him almost an hour to cut down one tree, while his friend was catching up fast. How could this be? Certainly he was as strong as his friend. Unfortunately, strength had little to do with it. It was all to do with whose axe was sharper.

The sharper the axe – the quicker the trees came down. By late afternoon the second lumberjack who had sharpened his axe had passed his friend and won easily.

There is an important lesson here for us. Our ceaseless activity may feed our ego and satisfy ones need to be needed, but eventually:

• It will leave us dull spiritually, emotionally & mentally;
• The people who need and applaud us now will discover it & go looking for someone sharper, leaving us feeling ‘used’ and unappreciated;
• Because we have lost our edge we will be unprepared for what God has for us next.

So, we need to stay sharp.

If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. 
Wisdom has the advantage of giving success.

Ecclesiastes 10 : 10