A young man
approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. “That
depends,” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you cut down this tree.” The
young man stepped forward and skillfully knocked down a great tree.
Impressed, the
foreman exclaimed, “You can start Monday.”
Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday rolled by. 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 pay 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!”
Our lives are like
that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to “sharpen the
axe.” In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever but
less happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten
how to stay sharp?
There’s nothing
wrong with activity and hard work. But God doesn’t want us to get so
busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, taking time to
pray, to read and study the Scriptures or to listen to the still small
voice of God. We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn
and grow. If we don’t take time to sharpen the axe, we will become dull
and lose our effectiveness. Let’s take time today to sharpen our axe.
Our
prayers may be awkward; our attempts may be feeble. But since the power
of prayer is in the one who hears it, and not the one who says it, our
prayers do make a difference. ~ Max Lucado |