Restoring Relationship- (The Logger)

A Metaphor

“Cutting trees is a hard task” I say, under my bacon and biscuit breath. “The morning is going so slow. It almost seems as though I have been working on this same tree for a couple of days. Maybe I have, I am starting to lose track of everything in this forest. I guess I will just skip this tree and come back to it later. Let me try a smaller one.” saying as I swing my thick bladed axe over my right shoulder and scout the hill for a tree of smaller stature. I remember my childhood dreams of being a logger as I walk to my newfound hacking spot. I received my first taste of tree chopping with my father when I was just a boy. Totting the lunch box was mostly all my duty as a logger was back then, but as daddy carried his old wooden handled axe I would strive to match him step for step with a stick thrown over my arm. “WHACK!! WHACK!!… WHACK!!!” is the sound that now rings through the forest as I give my most powerful blow to the trees trunk. To my surprise the axe only bounces off, never even cutting through the light bark that covers the tree as a garment. “I have spent too many days in a forest chopping trees for this small tree to defy me. What is the problem?!” I say as I throw my axe on the ground out of anger. “Stupid axe! It is some high dollar junk to not even be able to handle a tree of this wimpy size.” I turn around and sit on the forest floor, leaning against the small opponent tree I place my head in my blistered hands. Just as I stop blaming my cutting tool for its inability to chop down a small tree as this, the thought occurs to me that I have not taken the time for many days to sharpen the axe blade. This is the reason I cannot finish the task before me. I neglected to maintain the relationship with the true power of tree chopping… the axe.

Beloved, in order for us to really do the job God has called us to do, we must take time and sharpen our relationship with Him. Never ever forget that He is the power of this Christian life. When relationship with Him becomes dull then we will soon find ourselves trying to tackle His job with our own strength. It never will prevail. The trees of this world are way to strong for us to simply break down without the sharpened blade of the Holy Spirit. Let’s sharpen the axe daily.