2008 - Year of Sabbath

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 58:13-14

Although, it may seems an easy going year - SABBATH or simply REST, but then I think it's gonna be a tough one, as I've got needles on my butts - can't. sit still type. It will mean making a deliberate choice of not going my own way and doing as I please. (Hmm... a bit tough leh, God!)

Over the years, due to the nature of my job as an events person, being the eldest child, and of course being a mom trains me to think on the spot, on my toes and on my fingers tips....whatever. Often I feel as if my mind is controlling me -- telling me to do this and next do that, but of course it got processed in the brains lah! But the process is probably far too fast to cover all the analytical, consequences and the (heart) feelings departments. Somehow, I have over-relied on my own self -- only pausing to ask for directions once in a while. I think it has became a habit liao, to take on every load and burden into my own hands, working myself out like an ox... (by the way, I'm one..hehe). I have forgotten to learn to let go and relax a bit.

Thus, this year, I'm trying to slow down abit to Pentium 4 -- to think a little bit longer. Hehe... I think I'm getting on my colleagues' nerves, cos I think I am beginning to sound like my ex-boss.... "Should I do this or should I do that?''

Actually, the underlining message is actually to seek God first in whatever we do. I was reminded of the parable on sharpening one's axe.

A young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job. "That depends," replied the foreman. "Let's see you fell this tree."

The young man stepped forward, and skillfully felled a great tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "You can start Monday."

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by -- and Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today."
Startled, the young man replied, "I thought you paid on Friday."

"Normally we do," said the foreman. "But we're letting you go today because you've fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you've dropped from first place on Monday to last place today."

"But I'm a hard worker," the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave last, and even have worked through my coffee breaks!"

The foreman, sensing the young man's integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, "Have you been sharpening your ax?"

The young man replied, "No sir, I've been working too hard to take time for that!"

And these are the author's last words.

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 than 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 God doesn't want us to get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like taking time to pray, to read and study Scripture, or to listen to "the still small voice of God." We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don't take time to sharpen the axe, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.