A Tool Conference

The following story entitled “A Tool Conference” was written many years ago by Robert R. Hines. The Carpenter’s tools had a conference. Brother Hammer was in the chair. The meeting had informed him that he must leave, because he was too noisy. But he said, “If I am to leave this carpenter shop, then brother Gimlet must go too! He is so insignificant that he makes very little impression. Little brother Gimlet arose and said, “All right, but brother Screw must go also, you have to turn him around and around before you get him anywhere.” Brother Screw then said, “If you wish I will go but brother Plane must leave as well. All his work is on the surface, there is no depth to it.” To this brother Plane said, “Well, brother Rule will have to withdraw if I do for he is always measuring other folks as though he is the only one that is right.” Brother Rule complained about old brother Sandpaper and said, “I don’t care, he is much rougher than he ought to be, and he is always rubbing people the wrong way.” In the midst of the discussion the carpenter came in to begin the days work. He put on his apron and went to the bench to make a pulpit. He used the screw, the gimlet, the sandpaper, the hammer, the plane, and all the other tools. After the days work was over and the pulpit was finished, brother Saw arose slowly and thoughtfully said, “I’ve been thinking as I watched the carpenter working and I have decided that we are all laborers together. There was not an accusation made against any of us that was not true, but the carpenter used every one of us, and there was not a place where he used any one of us where any other would have done at all.


This little parable should remind us of what the Apostle Paul penned in 1 Corinthians 12, along with our own gifts as a congregation of God’s people. “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body” (1 Corinthians 12:12-20). We need to make sure that we are not wasting time looking down on others because we each have a work to do. The Lord can even use us in our own shortcomings. However, the Lord does expect each one of us to do the work that He has given us the ability to do.