Just Sitting on a Log!

When I was a child we burned wood to heat our home and even had a wood stove on which our meals were cooked! When our clothes, the few that we had, were ironed, it was by irons heated on  that same wood stove.

Dad didn't buy the wood. That's too easy and much too costly. We sawed and split our own. Actually, it was wood given to us by neighbors. All we had to do is cut it, burn the brush, saw it up and split the larger pieces.

In my family were seven children. Six were boys. At that time the youngest was too little to help with the wood. He was not held accountable! However, I was about five, but I had a job. It was an all-day job. When the tree had been felled and the limbs stripped, it was time for the cross-cut saw. This saw had rugged teeth for quick cuts. It was the equivalent of a modern-day chain saw, but Dad and the two older brothers, taking turns, were the energy behind the cut! The next two boys, age wise, piled brush and stacked the wood as the older ones and Dad split it. My job was "sitting on a log".

In order to saw the log which created massive lateral forces, two of us would sit on that log, it being wedged on support crosses. All day long as the wood was cut, I would just sit there on that log and weigh it down! It's a non-valued added job, but somebody had to do it! Although it was a non-productive job sitting on that log, it served a purpose. It made the log stable.

For the immature "sitting on a log" is understandable. That's about all that we're qualified to do. However, as I grew older I graduated to more productive things. My first promotion was stacking the brush. Then I graduated to stacking the wood, then to actually using the saw! At first I pushed when I should have pulled and the saw buckled. With practice, I could wield a good cross-cut saw just as Dad could. I had matured! My days of "just sitting on a log" were over! Or were they?

At around twelve years old I began to feel the call of the Holy Spirit. Dad and Mom told me that I had become "accountable", a traditional age for Jewish children to become responsible. What that meant is that I was old enough to not only know that I was a sinner, but that there would be harsh punishment if I didn't trust the Lord.

For years I knew that I was a sinner, but now it was official! Other people knew that I knew. I knew as young as seven or eight, but wanted to enjoy the world as long as I could! I didn't want to be like the newly saved person who thought "If I had known sin could be this much fun, I would have never got saved!"  In order to not be a hypocrite, I just didn't claim Jesus!

A Christian life is much as the sawing of wood. We needed the wood for sustenance. We need Christ for sustenance. No one gave us the wood. We had to work for it! It takes effort to be saved too!

Philippians 2:12b "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

Just as I grew older I was held accountable for more responsible contributions to the sawing of wood. My part grew in providing for the well-being of the family. I quit "just sitting on a log" and began to work! What I did as I matured added value to sustaining the family. I piled brush, stacked wood and maneuvered the saw. I got off that log!

At around fourteen I got off that spiritual log. I quit just sitting there. I remembered my older brothers saying "You're as worthless as a bump on a log" because in effect I was a human bump merely sitting there, just like on a log. It was time to go to work! It was time to "work out your salvation" according to scripture!

My first attempt to wielding the spiritual saw caused backlash. It wasn't a very effective way of cutting my own spiritual wood. My immature attempt at cutting the wood was by avoiding sinful actions such as "cussing", stealing and the like. I thought that when I became "good" enough then I would be a Christian. Nobody could ever be that good because only God is "good"!

My "work" was efforts to save myself by doing "good"! That's pushing the cross-cut saw when I should be pulling. It's my heavenly Dad on the other end of the saw, and rather than doing as he would have me to do, I was still fighting the saw. Although I was really fighting the saw when I cut wood, I bragged to those who never sawed "I'm doing a man's work now... I'm sawing wood!"

Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast."

I was to "work out my own salvation", but I was doing it by pushing when I should have been pulling! I was in effect trying to saw the wood, not only by myself, but against God. Every time God pulled, I pushed and when he pushed, I pulled! I had to work on this! I considered what I was doing and thought "God and I have got to do this together! He's my Dad and I must pull when it's time and push when he needs me to."  Right then God said "Quit trying to saw as if you're by yourself!"

God taught me how to saw. I quit "just sitting there on a log" and followed his lead. He said in effect, "Let me lead. You follow!" I must be his servant and let him be my Master! His gift to me was that he gave me faith in him. He showed me that his way of sawing was The Way! That gift meant that I could quit doing unnecessary work. I could quit putting in counterproductive effort! I would allow him to lead and trust that he would lead me where I needed to follow.

My spiritual sustenance is salvation. We had always hoped that we cut enough wood for the winter because if we waited until it was too cold, we just might freeze! Jesus provides the wood to see us through the winter. If we depend on him he will see that "we work out our salvation" and consider his will. The type of work he has for us is to consider his ways. Rather than doing the sawing on our own, our "work" is thinking on the things of God and considering the best path.

As we carry the wood home, we can take the long hard way or the narrow path which leads straight to home. Working out our own salvation is to find that path where the "yoke is easy and the burden light" (Matthew 11:30). Working out our own salvation is doing the work the easy way. It's allowing God to do it all! That's his gift to us. "We are weak, but he is strong!" (Song A Closer Walk with Thee). Our "work of salvation" is to "quit sitting on a log" and let God do his giving. He has much to give!

So if God does the giving and we are to "quit sitting on a log" what is it that we should do to provide sustenance to the family? We are to tell others about Jesus and his gift to all! The ultimate love which we're commanded to do is to love and the best way to love is by sawing with love. We quit pushing against the person on the other end of the cross-cut, but teach him how to make the work of salvation easier too!

As time passes, we can throw away that cross-cut saw and let God do even more! We use his power saw. The chains that he freed us from can be used against that big old contrary hardwood log. We fuel the new chain saw, oil it, and then let God cut the wood. Take that will you? That's his gift to us!