Have you heard the story about the young man who joined a tree-felling gang? It goes like this…
The new guy is a hard worker and on the first day he felled 28 trees, 5 more than anyone else. The next day he worked even harder but only managed to fell 25 trees. And by the end of the week he only managed to chop down 15 trees, fewer trees than everyone else.
An older woodsman gave him this advice. “Young man I see you are a good worker, diligent and always working hard but you lack one thing. You need to stop chopping at least once a day – long enough to sharpen your axe. Because a lot of your hard work and energy is being wasted by having a dull axe.”
The new guy is a hard worker and on the first day he felled 28 trees, 5 more than anyone else. The next day he worked even harder but only managed to fell 25 trees. And by the end of the week he only managed to chop down 15 trees, fewer trees than everyone else.These’s an important, and often overlooked, principle here.
We need to step outside the daily ‘doing’ ministry long enough to ‘up-skill‘ ourselves for the doing!
It is important as a leader in ministry we make time in our busy schedules to sharpen our axe. We need a constant flow of good input to ensure we stay ‘sharp’. It might just be watching a video, joining a webinar, reading a book , a regular catch up with a mentor or other ministry leaders, or subscribing to an email. But it has to be regular – and that mans you have to plan for it.
And of course the Spiritual element is important too. Making the time to “Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10
One more thing…
No doubt, you know that making time to upskill and refresh yourself is important. But there is still a problem.
The gap between ‘intention’ and ‘action’.
Really there isn’t much anyone else can do about it. It comes down you taking action. So open your diary now, find a gap in your schedule and put in a recurring appointment to spend half an hour each week upskilling yourself!
