My teenagers use the slang grinding for hard, focused work, and I find that it fits. As they’ve been grinding on exams and final projects, I’ve been doing my own grinding on the tasks that have been entrusted to me. The problem is that constant grinding dulls the edge.

My husband who knows my over-exerting, work harder rather than smarter tendencies often quotes Ecclesiastes 10:10:

“If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength.”

He knows me better than I know myself most times. He sees the tiredness in my eyes and watches me dig myself deeper into exhaustion rather than receive rest. “Work smarter, not harder,” he says.

Perhaps I should see about tattooing this on my forearm so that every time I lift a work-wearied arm in tired exertion, I will be reminded that I need sharpening not doubled strength, more enjoyment rather than more exertion.

The sharpening of Sabbath remakes me weekly. In a few hours, God does a wonderful work in my dull-edged yet edgy soul. He slows me down enough to remind me that he has never called me to do anything alone. He works with me and for me and beside me and in me. He settles me by his side so that I remember that the most important task set before me is to see him, to know him, and to enjoy him.

Our culture is constantly trying to separate the work and rest which God has paired together as necessary complements (Genesis 2: 1–3; Exodus 20: 8–11). We either over-work, grinding to the point of dullness, or over-rest, leisure-loving ourselves into laziness and lack of purpose. Over and against such polarizing and pulling apart, the Scriptures invite us into the complementary cadence of six days of work and one day of rest.

Sabbath rhythms give our Savior the space to sharpen our dull edges so that he might send us back out into the good works he has prepared in advance that we might walk into them (Ephesians 2: 8–10).

If you find yourself dull-edged and drudging through your tasks, I pray that you would know the sharpening stillness of time with the Savior. In the words of Abraham Heschel from his short but powerful book The Sabbath, “The world has our hands, but our souls belong to Someone Else.”

May you know the Someone Else who is the Savior. May His nearness sharpen your souls.

Sharpened 

Work-weary and worn, I keep swinging,
As if to overcome exhaustion with exertion;
Shoulders straining, strength waning,
Until I hear your gentle assertion:
“A dull axe needs not strength, but sharpening.”

Looking up from my task, I see You.
I’m reminded I never work alone.
My tender Father stands beside me—
Both task and tiredness are known:
“Come, weary one, let me sharpen your axe.”

With an understanding gaze, He smiles
As He lifts my hands from the task. 
Then settling me down beside Him,
My harried heart He begins to unmask. 
“The axe can wait; let me sharpen your soul.”

Stooping to whisper with wearied me,
He sharpens me with His Word.
I am loved enough to listen—
Somehow, He speaks, yet I am heard:
“Now, let’s take a look at that axe.”

I sit beside Him in contented silence, 
As he tends to the tools of my trade. 
He works, slow, sure, and steady;
My soul, leaning on Him, is stayed. 
“There now. Your tools are ready for the task.”

The worries under the work released, 
I step to the task with new strength. 
I work with Him, not for Him;
I know I am loved at great length. 
“Until the work is finished, I am with you.”