A lathe spins. More accurately, a lathe makes wood spin.
You put a chunk of wood between points. While the wood spins, knives cut. They cut away perfectly good wood, leaving a pile of chips on the floor, and a baseball bat or a chair leg or a table pedestal or a stair baluster on the lathe.
There is nothing wrong with the wood removed. Not really. It’s not immoral. It’s not unethical. But it was in the way of finishing the stairway or the table or the baseball game.
Sometimes good things, good dreams, good ideas have to be cut away.
That’s why I gave away my lathe last week. I’d only had it for three years. I got it from a friend who was moving. I got it because I wanted a lathe. I wanted it because I like using a lathe in middle school. I wanted to try again. I thought it would be fun.
But in three years, I turned it on twice, never with wood in it. For three years it was an obstacle in the garage. It kept the car out. It was an obstacle in my heart. It cluttered space.
So one of my goals for the year was to use it or give it away. As soon as I wrote the goal, I knew that the answer was to give it away. There are too many other things on my list that matter more.
I cannot do everything. I am glad that some people can. Perhaps you are one of those people. But I find that I cannot do everything, please everyone, fulful every dream – of mine or anyone else.
I can, however, decide I want to be a really good arrow. On a sign. Pointing to Jesus. Letting the chips fall.
300 words a day 
Diane Brogan
You amaze me in the most delightful ways. It has two points for me. The chips have nothing wrong with them,but they had to get out of the way to make an object. The second point is achieving a goal. You gave it away when you decided not to use it.
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Daniel
Knowing what our purpose is and accepting it, is one of the reality lessons we mortals sometimes must discover. I can really relate to this as I too had to let go of some fine woodworking equipment a few years ago, along with some other good things in my life. Very thoughtful post on several levels. You make a great arrow Jon. : )
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Rich Dixon
This comment box isn’t big enough.
I think of the statue of David and Michelangelo’s belief that his role as sculptor was to remove the marble and reveal the image that was always there. I’ve watched master woodworkers, and that’s how it seems. They somehow see what the rest of us don’t. They don’t create as much as they reveal.
Master pastors, too.
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Bill Hanifin
Finding margin in our days provides the opportunity to hear God’s voice and to make better decisions for work, family, anything else. Running hard without a break, finding pride in multi-tasking….has dimishing returns. Simplifying here and focusing on the shorter list of what’s most important.
Steven Covey addressed this in his own way in his famous book “7 Habits…”. Do what’s critical, not what’s important.
Great post.
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Frank Reed
Keep pointing, Jon. People are listening and hearing leads to believing.
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Andrew Brewer
I’ve always subscribed to the “less is more” mentality. God has been teaching me a lot about distinguishing between good vs best. Sometimes we need to lay the good things down in order to make way for the best (and most God glorifying) things in life.
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Cheryl Smith
Yes, you do the pointing very well. And the challenging too. Going to look for my lathe disguised as something else…
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David Seibold
In only 300 words you captured my attention and caused me to relive the two best years of my childhood – The years I also was in wood shop and able to use a lathe to create wooden bowls and lamp stands. I pictured the piles of wood chips, heard the tools bite into the wood, felt the heat of the sandpaper, and smelled the odor of the finishing oils. And I dreamed of doing it again!
It was the time of life where I learned the joy of persistent patient effort towards craftsmanship. Not only in wood shop but in doing research and writing term papers. Life now is so busy with the miles to go, the places to be, the things to do. When will I take the time to enjoy the process of creating perfection instead of just meeting the deadline?
You stopped me in my tracks tonight and I’m better for it. I’m going to set aside my self-imposed deadlines this week and take a few hours to make one project give me pleasure in its craftsmanship. I believe that will give me more satisfaction than the ten other projects that were just completed on schedule no matter how well they pay me for the work.
I understand the impulse to buy the lathe. I understand the need to get rid of it. I’m just sad that you never got to enjoy it.
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Jon Swanson
Ah dear friends. Remind me to stop putting up posts on Monday that get comments. Because Mondays are days I cannot think well enough to reply. But thank you for your responses. I’ll be lathing again this week.
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