Sharpenening the Saw

We thought about calling this blog chasing sunshine because we certainly are escaping winter. (50 degrees and sunny in Sedro Woolley, WA today.) We thought about calling it Where's Wikoff? But we settled on sharpening the saw because we think that is the main purpose of sabbatical.

In case you didn't read the newsletter article we wrote before leaving Sandpoint here it is.

Cutting wood is one of the activities I enjoy. I don’t know why. I guess it makes me feel like a real man. Ministry is often a mental exercise involving relationships and study where the products of our labor are long term and intangible, but cutting wood is a physical exercise where I get to see the products of my labor immediately. I feel like a pioneer man providing for my family. One thing I have learned about cutting wood is that I need to stop periodically to sharpen my saw. If I don’t, I run the saw full throttle without making a lot of progress through the wood. There is a lot of movement, noise, and friction, but not a lot of wood being cut. When the chips quit flying it is time to stop and sharpen the saw.

That’s really the idea of a sabbatical. It is an opportunity to sharpen the saw. Ministry can and does take its toll on pastors and their families. After a while, there can be a lot of movement, noise and friction, without a lot of wood being cut, unless we take some time out from the regular routines of ministry for renewal.

By the time you read this Shar, Amanda, Ben and I will probably be on our way out of town for three months. Because of the concern you have for your pastors, both Chad and I have now been blessed with sabbaticals. We are so grateful to be part of such a generous church! I have been working with a few others who are helping make sure our sabbatical time is as productive as possible for our family and the church.

The sabbatical team has developed three goals for the sabbatical. First is renewal. Believe it or not pastors don’t often have the time to keep up with new ministry developments, in depth study, or sometimes even uninterrupted time with God within the day to day demands of church life. So, I have a plan to include each of those in my sabbatical.

The second goal is rest. We love serving you. We don’t work this hard against our will. In fact often we work hard by choice because we love what we do, and we love for whom we are doing it. However, before long that level of involvement in lives can just flat wear us out. We can be physically and emotionally weary without even being fully aware that we are. So, Shar and I have borrowed a travel trailer and we plan to go when we feel like going, stop when we feel like stopping, and rest an awful lot.

The third goal is family time. What an opportunity to make life-long memories while our kids are still young and still want to be seen with us! I can’t believe that Amanda will turn nine this year. It seems she was just born a few months ago, but already half the time she will spend at home is gone. We have so little time to influence the direction of their lives, and my prayer is that we will do it well.

We look forward to sabbatical, but we have some mixed feelings about it. One is that we will miss all of you. We understand that we are supposed to change our normal routines in order to accomplish what a sabbatical is all about, but I’m sure that we will be ready to come back and see you after a few weeks. Thank you for your constant generosity and care for your pastors and our families! We appreciate you allowing us time to sharpen the saw.