February 4, 2025
Dear Friends,
The smoke billowed around my shop, its acrid smell making my breathing uncomfortable. Yet, contrary to the adage, there was no fire, only clouds of smoke that required me to open both my overhead door and the entry door in order for at least some of the smoke to dissipate. With temperatures in the minus 20’s, that was no great delight!
My shop is still standing today, despite yesterday’s shenanigans. Let me explain.
The hardest hardwood in Canada is hickory. Next to it in hardness comes maple. I am attempting to make a maple dining room table for our house and using material that I purchased some forty-five years ago. Yesterday, I had to make a number of “rip” cuts (cuts made longitudinally with the grain of the wood, the kind that produce the most resistance to the saw blade) in order to create some shims that I need.
The problem was my saw blade. It is of very good quality but it has been in my saw since before we started building our house. The bottom line is that its teeth are dull and badly in need of sharpening. I can get by with it for cutting most woods but the second hardest hardwood in Canada presents a challenge. I was able to persevere through the smoke to cut the pieces I needed but each piece looks like a child has run amuck on it with a wood burning set. The bottom line is that a dull blade not only makes cutting more difficult, it also produces greater threat to safety and even collateral damage to the material being cut.
Where do you need sharpening? Or, which relationship or character tools in your life need sharpening? Where do you find yourself going against the grain of life with a dull blade that is ultimately producing a lot of smoke but no fire?
John rebuked the church at Ephesus for having lost its ‘first love.’ How is your love for God, for your neighbour, for yourself? Any sharpening needed?
Proverbs tells us that ‘as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.’ Do you have those kinds of sharpening relationships in your life? In the same manner, Hebrews tells us that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the core of our desires and motivation. Are you subjecting yourself to its sharpness?
I’ve been accused of not being ‘the sharpest knife in the block,’ and we all know that that is true. But, honestly, doesn’t that apply to each of us? Dull tools are dangerous and ineffective. Let’s all make a commitment to be “sharpened” in whatever way is necessary.
Now, if you don’t mind, I have a saw blade to replace.
Blessings!
Doug