My Father's Axe Lays Bare The Root

I guess it was kind of ironic that I am writing a series on genetics and heredity on the ninth anniversary of my father’s death. Also, in the last 24 hours the temperatures dropped from 60 into the teens. It’s now extremely cold and damp and this kind of weather in Pennsylvania gets a lot of wood stoves cranked up. Due to the weather I ruminated about something my father, my brother and I did together a long time ago. We split wood together. Splitting wood is intrinsic to who I am. It is embedded in my personal identity’s DNA. Rooted unshakably in my psyche.

It isn’t some macho chauvinistic thing. It’s an earthy, fatherly thing. It was as close as I ever got to my father and brother and what it is for me to be uniquely male. It was dad being a roll-model to his sons. A damn good one I might add. For all his faults and foibles this is what dad did and did well. He also often did it in silence. Dad wasn’t a man of many words as he realized where words were abundant a fool was not absent. He would often tell me that I would be better served, “Talking less and doing more.” Some of his greatest lessons were the ones with the least amount of words. These were the lessons of labor where the rubber met the road and the axe hit the grindstone.

When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise. Proverbs 10:19

He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding Proverbs 17:27

Splitting wood was hard work. I would do it on Sundays in the winter during high school. Why? Because along with shoveling snow or sprinting uphill on the 1000 ft. driveway my parents had, wood-splitting was great cardiovascular exercise for upper body. I wrestled all though high school and back in the 80s and on Sundays there were no practices. The lesson of hard work to gain a pittance type reward was the lesson. The harder you worked the more you were blessed in this life. Maybe not always monetarily but sometimes physically and spiritually. At least that’s the lesson dad was trying to get across. I carried this right into my self-discipline on the days off from wrestling. I carried it into adulthood. I may not have done things properly, but I never took shortcuts or spared effort getting things done whether right or wrong. It took age to get it all together. Eventually it came though.

 

I think now I see the end-result of the physical and spiritual. Physically I maintained the same attitude throughout my adult life. Reap what you sow. Sow the fruits of your labor. It hasn’t always worked in a 1:1 ratio but often…I came out on the winning end. I am physically robust for 51 years old. I’ve been routinely told I am an oddity for my age and am still doing things men 15 years younger cannot manage. In that way I am truly blessed. But the real blessing and reward is manifest here now in this writing.

The ability to reflect on this and see the psychological/physiological benefits is in its own way, its own reward. The fact that I can share it with you the reader is in-reality my father reaching out across the intervening decades and over the chasm of death to show you through the example of my life (and my brother's) the benefit of being Biblically industrious. There is something profoundly spiritual in this for me.

Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. Ephesians 4:28

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the LORD as a reward. It is the LORD Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 1 Corinthians 3:8

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the LORD, because you know that your labor in the LORD is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58

As I write this a second thought comes to mind too. My father never let me use the axe with the electrical tape around the handle. I was always forced to use a splitting wedge and a sledgehammer. Thereby, making the chore of splitting that much more laborious. At first, I just figured my pop was a sadist. But as I got older it dawned on me that he was doing his job as a father. A misjudgment or errant swing with an axe could amputate or partially sever a limb or appendage. A blunt force trauma to a shin or foot generally wouldn’t have me bleeding out in the woods.

 

Granted it would hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t be life threatening. It was an issue of degrees. No firewood pun intended. This was the second unspoken lesson from dad. To those that do well with what they are given, more will be given. One’s measure will increase. Again, hard work gains a reward. I needed to earn the right to use the axe. It was a ‘man’s’ tool. Not a boy’s.

But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. Luke 12:48

…and this is why I am physically and spiritually blessed at middle-age. Putting time in the trenches allowed me to earn my place in this world. My father knew this world was going to hand me nothing that toiling might. So…. he made me earn by the sweat of my brow. They are lessons taken deeply to heart are forever seared into the essence of who I am. I still reap the harvest of those lessons today 40 years after they were taught to me. For this I am appreciative of my father and his lessons. I now attempt to try and pass them on to my sons too. For this lesson and obedience to my father…I am blessed and I produce the fruit of the labor that my father put into me that I try to instill and root in my sons also. Yes, God really does bless the obedient. God does smile and show His face to those who will be like the ant (Proverbs 6:6) and take dominion over the creation (Genesis 1:28). Thanks Dad.

 

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Matthew 3:10