And we had to meet that deadline. If we didn’t get the sets built, the actors in our annual college musical were going to be singing Camelot tunes on an empty stage!
Looking across the stage, I could see a person using the radial saw to create wood pieces of the correct length and width. Closer to where I was wielding a hammer, there were some folks standing about (waiting for the wood to be sawn, I presumed). There were others preparing a solution to turn muslin into stage flats. And then there was my crew. We had finished assembling a few of the larger all-wood set pieces and platforms, and now had nothing to do until more wood arrived.
The bottle neck, as anyone could deduce, was that saw. The process was slow. With almost every piece, the crew person on the saw was having to stop and back out the blade because it was getting stuck part way through. More than a couple times, a piece had to be thrown out and started over because the cut wasn’t straight.
Into this situation stepped Mr. Starnes, one of our drama instructors and the Technical Director on this musical production. He took it all in with a long glance, and then he walked straight over to the person running the saw. From a distance, I saw them speaking for a few seconds, and then, together, they removed the saw blade and replaced it with another. Mr. Starnes then turned away and walked toward us. When he came near, I asked about what I had observed.
“We’ve used that blade too much,” he said. “It’s grown dull. I helped Jimmy put on a new, sharp blade. We’ll arrange to have the other one sharpened.”
It was as simple as that. In short order, the sawn wood production increased, pieces began to flow out to the various working groups, and we were soon all engaged ... turning wood into dreams.
I recalled that memory some years later when I first read Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. There, nestled among some excellent habits, right at the end, was Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw. Habit 7 is about renewal, but not saw blades. It’s about renewing people in four dimensions: the physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.
And if that rings a bell, it’s because it sounds a lot like something you may have come across from the Bible. In fact, many of Covey’s “habits” are remarkably similar to Biblical exhortations. Habit 7 aligns perfectly with this week’s passages on the Sabbath from the book of Deuteronomy and the gospel of Mark.
The Deuteronomy passage repeats one of the Ten Commandments; instructing God’s people to take a day of rest following every six of working. Take a minute to think about that: God thinks rest is so important ... it’s a commandment! Add to that what Jesus teaches in Mark —that God made the Sabbath for people, not people for the Sabbath— and you realize taking a Sabbath rest is not about following a rule that restricts activity and movement.
The Sabbath is truly about renewal. And if done properly, taking a Sabbath rest renews us in all four of those dimensions defined by Covey. It is not enough to just stop working so we can then replace it with some other frantic activity. We need real rest, real renewal, and taking a Sabbath rest gives us the opportunity “sharpen” those essential areas of our lives.
After all, as I learned all those years ago building sets for Camelot, you can’t really be productive with a dull saw.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 4 (9) Second Sunday after Pentecost (June 3, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=204
1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Psalm 81:1-10
2 Corinthians 4:5-12
Mark 2:23-3:6
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DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets every Friday morning at 8:00. We gather at the Waco "Egg and I" for food, fellowship, Bible discussion, prayer, and laughter. All are welcome.
Blessings,
Steve
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