Top Shelf

Credit card commercials ask us, “What’s in your wallet?”

A better question to consider is, “What’s in your toolbox?”

I have a clear picture in mind of a tall, clunky mechanic’s toolbox. It’s filled with drawers of various depths. It’s fair to assume that the mechanic’s most used tools are in the top pull-out. Rarely used tools reside in the box but are foreordained to a bottom drawer.

Knowledge workers are enlightened by their personal inventory of tools. A worker’s productivity is largely impacted by the quality of tools available for random access. When we are called upon to add knowledge to a project, our primary contribution emerges from our storehouse.

As our eyes open widely this morning in view of the possibilities of a new year, one thing seems certain. We’re going to need a bigger toolbox. Many of last year’s tools have elevatored down to a less relevant drawer. The half-life of knowledge continues to narrow.

We must know more to do more. I have a few excellent college textbooks in residence in my home-office library. The books, while as comfortable as spaghetti night, rest peacefully on a bottom shelf. Shockingly, few people query me about state of the art marketing knowledge circa 1970.

The top shelf of my toolbox is an ellipsis for what awaits in 2018. I’m hungry to know more because more will be required of me.

As Solomon warned, knowledge is folly without the presence of God. Lean upon the Lord to fill your top shelf with His inspired Word. Lean not on your own understanding. Seek Him first.

“For the word of God is alive, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).