Sharpen your ax

If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.  Ecclesiastes 10:10 NIV

King Solomon used simple imagery to convey profound truths.  Can you picture the worker, Solomon is watching from his window as he observes a young man who is building one of his many projects?    The worker is swinging away at a piece of wood, sweat covering his entire body.  His friends are cheering him on to make more head way with his work.  Fatigue sets in much quicker than he would like…but his pride keeps him pounding away.  Meanwhile, an older man under the shade of a tree sits sharpening his ax, with his project nearly finished.

Let’s not be too quick to judge.  Let’s not think that we are all the wise old man sitting under a tree sharpening our ax.  For Solomon’s words invite us to take a moment to pause and ask some very good questions.

What activity am I involved in doing right now that seems to have lost it’s edge?  Things that have grown dull should be speaking to us that they are not performing in the way that they were created to work.  This could be a literal moment for you to stop and give some care to a physical tool that you use to work.  Your computer may need some maintenance…it is running slower.  Your car may need some repairs…before major work happens.  And of course, your kitchen knives probably need to be sharpened.  But, this also applies to your busyness of schedule.  Have you become so busy in so many ways…that you are not effective in any area?  Have you let the important priority of sleep, rest and exercise grow dull?

What changes can you make to start to sharpen the areas that have grown dull?  More work and working harder are not the same answer as taking time to sharpen your situation.  Yet, our default many times is to buckle down and gut it out rather than make the needed changes. 

Take a long, slow and deep breath.  Pause and ask God where you need to take some time to sharpen your life.  What adjustments do you need to make in your relationship with your spouse?  A date night? A change in your tone of voice so that you are communicating that this person is still the most important and best relationship that God ever gave you?  Find ways to serve them just because you love them? 

What about your health?  Have you been putting off the needed test that you need to take? What is stopping you from implementing the rest, diet and exercise that you need?  Don’t let your resources of your body become dull for lack of sharpening.

A skill is a learned activity of small steps organized by time and sequence.  We learn to count by adding and subtracting, then multiplying and dividing.  Sharpening our lives is a skill that requires pause, reflection, revelation and then adjustment.  Revelation is where the wisdom comes from to bring about change.  This change is necessary, so we will not keep doing the same things in the same way over and over.  God brings revelation to us when we pause long enough to ask.  This revelation can come from His word, His Spirit and even through other people (His body building itself up). 

The last question.  Will you take the time (wisdom) to sharpen the dull areas of your life (needed revelation) so that you can stop exerting so much energy and getting less results?  Ask God to give you the skills (small action steps) to make you highly effective in His hands to complete His work through you.  Philippians 2:13  For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.