Once upon a
time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got
it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons,
the woodcutter was determined to do his best.
His boss gave
him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work. The first day,
the woodcutter brought 18 trees. “Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that
way!”
Very
motivated by these words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he
could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could
only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.
“I must be
losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and
apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on. “When was
the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked. “Sharpen? I had no time
to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”
Reflection:
Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to
sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than
ever, but less happy that 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 we should not get so busy that we
neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time
to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to
read etc.
We all
need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take
the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment