Sustainable Living

We have just completed our third week of company.
There is high energy as siblings and their children weave in and through our day.
There is conversation, laughter, dancing, and prayer.
And I grow weary.
I'm in the kitchen cooking another mammoth meal, I'm pretty sure there are mash potatoes in my hair.
My eyes, roving the counter for a spatula, happen to land on my tea cup.
I feel the thirst in my body and soul. Tea time, in the afternoon, is when I meet with God. My Bible comes out of it's special drawer in the kitchen table and I sip and read nourishment. It's been a while and I'm needy.
Unbidden, and unwanted if truth be known, comes the thought, what are you imbibing for, if not to expend the energy? That rings of spiritual gluttony and I try to focus on the beans.
But I can't.
The Bible, that I read daily, speaks more of battles and races than clinking china.
Ecclesiastes 3 speaks of, "A time for war and a time for peace," and implies that there will be both.
So I get back to work with a will, in faith, knowing that God will use those quiet days of study to articulate His will.
Knowing that the deep draughts of tea and truth have a battle cry at their core and it must be uttered.
Knowing that though my body is weary, my soul is most at peace when in the fray.
And when quiet comes again, as it will, I will embrace it, but only as a means to an end.
This, my friends, is the secret to sustainable living.