Whet the Edge

Ecclesiastes 10:10  If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.

I packed my weed eater across the creek, and up the hill before realizing I forgot the gas. Back down the hill I went, across the creek, grabbing the gas can, and back up the hill. I then spent the next several minutes  pulling the rope hopping to hear the thing start. After making another trek to my tools and a few adjustments, I did get it started, but not before enduring an existential crisis. Am I really going to have to go through this struggle for the rest of my life? How many more times am I going to have to pull on that rope hoping to hear the rumble of the motor? I set the weed eater down, whet to my computer and ordered a mowing scythe.  

As a boy, I worked on my Grandpa's apple orchard in Kentucky. He had us mow under the trees with scythes. The men hated mowing. I actually thought it was cool, swinging a giant blade around, chopping and hacking. The first time I tried, I grabbed a scythe and started swinging for the fences like Griffey, Jr. in a homerun derby. My Grandpa stopped me and said I was going to kill myself. He sharpened my blade then told me to let the scythe do all the work, that's what it's made for. He just barely moved the blade through the grass at his "grandpa pace" but then I realized how he cut the grass down like it was nothing. He took down a lot more grass in a lot shorter time than I had because used the tool and took time to prepare for the work.

Harkening back to simpler times, I took my scythe to the hill side this summer and went to town, forgetting everything I knew and started hacking at the grass and swinging for the fences. After the newness wore off and the soreness came in, I remembered the blade needs to be sharp, and the tool needs to do the work. If the blade isn't sharp, you can still cut some of the grass, but it won't' do a good job, and takes much more effort, and you'll tire out before you get very far. With a sharp blade, it takes less effort and you'll be able to do more work with less effort. No grass falls while you are sharpening, but in the long run, you'll get more done and with less effort if you stop ever few minutes to sharpen the blade.

There are countless applications, but I'll just take a few. Do you tire yourself in study and Bible reading without whetting the edge with prayer? Do you have so much to do, that you don't have time to pray? Do you take time in prayer before church, asking for wisdom? Perhaps you preach or teach Sunday School. Do you spend hours crafting a homeletically sound outline, but labored all week without prayer for the sermon?  Perhaps you have searched the commentaries and read the works of authors down through the centuries and you haven't seen your desk since Tuesday, since it's covered in a mountain of books. You've consulted the lexicons and diagrammed sentences, and still struggling with a message, but have you come to God in humble prayer? Have you talked to your children about a particular sin, and fussed and cried and pleaded for them to hear you and to listen and yet, you neglected to go the Lord in prayer for wisdom, strength, and that your words would be effectual? Wisdom is profitable to direct.