Cutting Through Life

Surfing through the stations one Saturday afternoon I came across the lumberjack competitions being televised on ESPN. Like the strongest man competitions I had to stop and watch.

It is amazing how fast these guys can cut through a piece of wood and still have all of their phalanges (now I can mark that word off my list – was able to use it in a sentence). It is impressive that the chainsaws being used are the size of some motorcycles. What is even more impressive is the dexterity of those guys chopping through a log with nothing more than an ax. About now you might be thinking, “Okay, but what does this have to do with prayer?” – Glad you asked.

In Kent Hughes’ book, “Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome,” he relates a story of a young man applying for a job at a lumber company. The foreman asked the young man to show if he could fell a tree. The young man took up an ax and upon skillfully felling the tree was hired. On Thursday the foreman informed the young man that his check would be waiting for him at the front desk.

The young man puzzled replied, “I thought you paid on Friday.”

“Normally we do,” answered the foreman. Because the young man fell behind in cutting goals he was being let go. Protesting the young man pleaded his case that he was hard working and even gave up breaks to meet the goals.

The foreman seeing this asked an insightful question. “Have you been sharpening your ax?”

Hughes asks the question of, “How can anyone make such an unthinkable error?” He goes on to illustrate how many of us fail in our tasks because we fail in sharpening our lives with prayer.

Even though this book is primarily written for pastors, this truth is applicable to any believer. How many of us go through our day hacking away at life, let alone the trials we face, with dull instruments that only wind up frustrating us.

Hughes outlined three key points in regards to prayer:

1. We must pray – Have we ever asked why we need to pray if God knows everything?  Maybe the reason we pray is that God knows we need it. Every need, big or small, should drive us toward God. “Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other needs…”

2. The primacy of prayer – We all know Ephesians 6:11-19. As Christian soldiers we are fitted with the armor of God. We are standing firm. We are ready for battle (or at least we should be), but read verses 18 and 19. If we are not to ignore repetition in the text, how many times is pray or a variation of the word used in those two verses? In this battle we are in against the flesh, the devil and the world we are to pray, pray, pray.

3. The discipline of prayer – Are there any of us who would not give a loud amen and amen to that statement? Prayer is a discipline. As bad as it may sound, there are times we approach prayer like working out; we dread starting, but are glad we did when we finish. The mind, heart, soul and flesh are pulling in different directions at the moment we close our eyes and begin. Be of great courage Christian that perseverance eventually pays off. As our bodies grow accustomed to a physical workout, as we consistently go to God in prayer we (mind, body and soul) will begin to worship in this form of exercise.

I pray (no pun intended) that this is an encouragement to you, as it was for me.