A large tree from a neighbor's back yard lost its footing recently and fell over the fence into my backyard making quite a mess.  I had a chainsaw with a sharp blade and, after one hour, had cut a stack of nice, fireplace-sized logs from the tree on my side of the fence.  My neighbor, on the other hand, when he attempted the same with the rest of the tree on his side, had a saw with a dull blade and, after a few minutes, his saw was spewing clouds of smoke.  The wood was actually burning from the dull blade.  We both quickly realized what a sharp blade can do compared to a dull one.  The blade stays sharp, however, by being stressed and ground down by a blade sharpener.

Through coming against something that grinds down its dull spots, a saw blade stays sharp and useful.  A dull, untreated blade is not much use to anyone. But even a power tool with a dull blade was infinitely more desirable than cutting up the entire tree with a handsaw!  That would have been extremely tiring and would have taken us days.  Much better to let the saw with power do the work and with a sharpened blade as well.

The Holy Spirit works in us much the same way: when we try to go at the "big things" in life under our own head of steam, we tire easily and can be prone to giving up.  In that case, we're like hand tools.  But under the guidance and leading of the Spirit (the left-behind presence of the Risen Christ), we're able to do much more holy-work than we thought possible.  Following the Spirit, we become power tools for God.  But we need to keep our tools maintained from use or we're not good for anything.  Any tool is only useful if it indeed is used.

 

 Does not wisdom call,
   and does not understanding raise her voice?

On the heights, beside the way,
   at the crossroads she takes her stand;

beside the gates in front of the town,
   at the entrance of the portals she cries out:

‘To you, O people, I call,
   and my cry is to all that live.

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
   the first of his acts of long ago.

Ages ago I was set up,
   at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,
   when there were no springs abounding with water.

Before the mountains had been shaped,
   before the hills, I was brought forth—

when he had not yet made earth and fields,
   or the world’s first bits of soil.

When he established the heavens, I was there,
   when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

when he made firm the skies above,
   when he established the fountains of the deep,

when he assigned to the sea its limit,
   so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

   then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
   rejoicing before him always,

rejoicing in his inhabited world
   and delighting in the human race.

 

 ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

 

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.