Some years ago, I was part of a group of church members who had gathered at another member’s home to cut firewood for him. He heated his home primarily with a wood stove, but he was dying and no longer had the strength to cut the wood needed to warm his house during the winter. His son showed us the trees to cut, and in short order the group started working. We had a tractor with a choke chain to pull the downed trees out of the forest for cutting to length and a log splitter to make firewood.

Several of the men had brought small chainsaws to trim the small branches off of the tree trunks once the trees were felled. But only a couple of them had the experience and tools to drop the trees to get the wood cutting process underway.

One of these men was formerly a logger by trade. He brought a chainsaw with a long, 42-inch, cutter-bar. He had special chaps and boots that would stop the chainsaw from cutting him if it bucked back. However, what I noticed was that after every other tree he cut, he would stop to tighten the chain and sharpen the teeth on his chainsaw. As a boy cutting wood from my parent’s forest, I only sharpened the chain a couple of times a season. I quickly realized I had been doing this wrong my whole life. By sharpening his chain so frequently, he was actually able to cut wood more safely—and faster!

The value of rest time

Often in life we’re so focused on our work that we forget the value of working smarter. As a nation we can easily think that down time or preparation time is wasted time. Medical science has begun to catch up with God’s principle of a Sabbath rest—the human body needs rest time. This includes proper sleep, but also includes a physical change of routine and a mental break from the previous week. God gives us 52 opportunities to have a weekly break from the world each year, plus an additional seven annual Holy Days on top of that.

Though we may look at these Sabbaths as mere days of rest, they are especially days for us to focus on our relationships with God and His people. These are days to “sharpen our axe” (or chainsaw chain). By doing so we are able face the world with a renewed focus and diligence during the following week. God had ancient King Solomon record this advice, “If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but wisdom brings success,” (Ecclesiastes 10:10, NKJV, this and following verse).

Using the godly character we build by keeping God’s Sabbaths and following His way we spiritually work smarter, not just harder. This is the wisdom of Proverbs 20:29: “The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head.”  

Strength fades with age, so wisdom should take over. Our physical ability to fight against this world can fade with our spiritual age, but by taking on Godly wisdom we learn what is worth struggling against and what isn’t, what is worth investing our time and effort in and what is just a distraction.

As we savor the rests of God’s Sabbath and Holy Days, let’s also remember to use the “down” time to sharpen our axes for the weeks ahead.