Blunt Axes and Whetstones

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success." Ecclesiastes 10:10

"The artisan who would do his work well must first sharpen his tools." Confucius.

"Surely more work is done by a blunt edge and divine power, than by a sharp edge and little power." F.B. Meyer, 1894 (below)

When I was ten my father gave me a beautiful little cherry wood handled axe and a whetstone and told me to help clear a couple of acres of woods to build a house. I was so excited that I just tossed the whetstone aside and went at it. It was fun--for about five minutes. A blunt axe doesn't go very far very fast. After about half an hour, I gave up. After a bit of a rest, and washing the dirt out of the blisters on my hand, I sat down to the tedious, boring job of sharpening the axe. After that I made some real progress, but it wasn't fun anymore because the blisters hurt, even with gloves on.

A few days later I tried it again, but this time I first sharpened the axe--and this time it went much faster, and I did not get more blisters. And where before I saw axe sharpening as a boring, tedious job, I began to take delight in seeing how fine I could get the edge, and how quickly it could chop through trees. That lesson stood me in good stead years later, when in my senior year of high school I was captain of Florida's state-winning "forestry team." We had to demonstrate many skills, one of which was using a two-person saw. Our saw was so sharp it could split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen. We won, and we enjoyed dinner with the governor and special guests Miss Forestry and Miss Universe. It was quite an experience for a 17-year-old from a small town of 15,000 people. It taught me the power of dreaming, and vision--and that if you don't first sharpen your tools a vision is just a daydream.

Centuries before Confucius said that good artisans needed sharp tools, Solomon admitted that extra strength and skill could make up for a dull axe--but how much better to spend a little time first sharpening ones tools!

Honing our Life Skills It is the the same with life. In America we so often have a lottery mentality. We want to make it big without first paying a price, or preparing. And many youth are so anxious to get out into the "real world" that they drop out of college, certain they're going to make it big in music, sports or acting. Don't get me wrong--I'm all for dreams! We only go around twice, so let's make this time around count! But after we build castles in the air we should also put some solid foundations beneath them.

The World is my Whetstone Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God ordained for us long before we born. We were each given different temperaments, inclinations, and abilities to perform the unique tasks to which He has called us. And our life is the whetstone upon which we are sharpened.

Don't just live life on the edge; be that edge--and be a sharp one. It's easier on you, and it's easier on whatever you're hacking at.

At the end I add a small passage about the important of sharp tools. It was written by a Chinese in Fujian in the 1850s. But first, here is F.B. Meyer's take on Ecclesiastes 10:10 from "Our Daily Homily" (Morgan and Scott, London, 1894; modern reprints are called "Great Verses Through the Bible). My favorite line is "Surely more work is done by a blunt edge and divine power, than by a sharp edge and little power."

F.B. Meyer ("Our Daily Homily")
"If one do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength." Ecclesiastes 10:10

If this is true, as we know it is, may we not often use it as an appeal to God? There are times with all who work for God, when they are blunt, through much usage. The brain is blunt, and cannot think. The heart is blunt, and cannot feel. The voice is blunt, and has lost its ringing note. How often the evangelist, towards the end of a series of services, feels blunt! Sometimes also there are private sorrows, of which we cannot speak, which take off the edge. At all such times let us turn to God and say, "Put in more strength. Let thy power be magnified in my weakness. Give more grace, so that thy word shall not suffer." I suppose Paul meant this when he said that he gloried in infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon him. Surely more work is done by a blunt edge and divine power, than by a sharp edge and little power.

This, however, does not justify us in seeking to be blunt. And when we are conscious that the edge is going off, it becomes us to seek a fresh whetting. The time is not lost in the harvest-field when the reapers whet their scythes with musical tinkle. A day in the country or a week by the seaside are very pleasant whetstones. Solomon says that friendship, the face of a friend, will sharpen a blunt edge, and full often we have been sharpened and quickened by seasons of holy fellowship. But after all, nothing gives us such a keen edge as the devotional perusal of the divine Word. Let us appropriate the words of the prophet, and eachy one ask to be made a new sharp threshing-instrument having teeth, that we may thresh the mountains, and make them small, and give our God as little anxiety as possible.

From (Manual for Chinese seven-stringed zither, published in Fujian by Chu Feng-chieh in 1855).
"One must rely on tools. It is imperative that before the work begins, the tools be made sharp. Otherwise how can one's aims be achieved? Only then can excellent work be done.
Modern watches from England, and other things, are made with such surpassing craftsmanship that nothing could be added, and what is the reason? Sharp tools of quality (are used). If this sharpening of the tools is ignored, then it will not matter how good a carpenter one employs, he still will not be able to exercise his abilities."
Source: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~jrb/chin/

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