Are You a Wise Lumberjack?

We recently had an emergency and it was interesting to see how people reacted. These words from Rebecca Solnit about hope gave me a fresh perspective:

Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky…Hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency.

– Rebecca Solnit

I had never quite thought about hope being an ax, a tool we keep sharp and at the ready for emergency purposes. I thought about hope being something we employed to get through the tough times…a tool yes, an emergency preparedness weapon – great idea! Looking back I can see how hope was the linchpin that kept things together, but that was hind sight. Instead of employing hope at last, what if we prepared for it first?

A story comes to mind. A Wise Lumberjack was training the new Rookie, and told him that each evening he needed to stop work early, sit down and spend time sharpening his saw. They then spent the day cutting down trees, lots of trees, for hours an hours. The Wise Lumberjack quit working before the others, sat down, and sharpened his saw. The Rookie saw everyone else still cutting, so he kept cutting, forgetting the Wise Lumberjack’s advice. Next day they all started cutting down trees, and kept cutting, and kept cutting. Again, as the day was close to ending the Wise Lumberjack stopped cutting and spent solid time sharpening his saw. The Rookie followed everyone’s else’s example and kept cutting. This pattern repeated itself for the rest of the week. When the Yard Boss counted how many trees each man cut down – and they were paid by the tree – the Wise Lumberjack cut twenty-five percent more than everyone else. The Rookie questioned the Yard Boss and said that couldn’t be possible! The Wise Lumberjack did not spend as much time working as everyone else. The Yard Boss smiled, looked at the Rookie and said, “Of course he was working, he spent time sharpening his saw. You can’t cut down trees quickly and easily with a dull blade.”

All too often we are in a hurry and forget that sharpening our saw is what gets the job done. Effort and sweat alone will never beat preparedness. If we do not spend time reading, praying, learning, thinking, being quiet and building our hope by reminding ourselves of God’s faithlessness in the past, then when we need to employ hope again, it’s too late. The blade is dull and we have to work even harder to get less than desired results.

Hope is defined as a desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment. I thought about that emergency we had, it’s over now and everything is fine. How would it have gone differently – emotionally, spiritually or even in our relationships while it was happening – if we had engaged BELIEF more that just DESIRE? What if we had acted with certainty, had a sharp blade, ready to BELIEVE rather than pacing the floor clutching at hope with an expectation that it might go well? Is hope a lottery ticket or a sharp ax? I know which one I want it to be. Maybe it’s time to stop working feverishly in the same manner we always do. It is a brilliant idea to sit down and sharpen our ax. I would rather be the Wise Lumberjack and be thought as foolish, than be the Rookie who found out too late that he was too stupid to heed solid advice. Which one are you?

Spend time today sharpening your ax, you never know when your next emergency will happen. I have no doubt you would prefer to face it with a sharp ax!