Charge from the Wood Cutter

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a jobin a timber merchant and he got it.
The pay was really goodand so was the work condition.For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do hisbest. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the areawhere he supposed to work.The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!” Verymotivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harderthe next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third dayhe tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees.Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. “I mustbe losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went tothe boss and apologized, saying that he could notunderstand what was going on. “When was the last timeyou sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have beenvery busy trying to cut trees…”Reflection:Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that wedon’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, itseems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happythan 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 weshould not get so busy that we neglect the truly importantthings in life, like our personal life, taking time to get closeto our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking timeto read etc.We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn andgrow.

If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we willbecome dull and lose our effectiveness.