I was up in the Elkhorn Mountains hunting elk with my bow several years ago. It was a hot day and I’d walked over seven miles. I had no water left in my canteen. I was VERY thirsty. Then I came across this cattle trough that had a black hose wired about the trough, dripping water into it. I almost took a drink, but decided to check out the water source first.
The hose came down the hill from a spring. I walked up to the spring and saw that the spring itself had been fenced off, but cattle had broken through the fenced and muddied up the spring (and used it as a bathroom). No drinking that water. I wanted nothing to do with giardia!
Sabbath times (I call them my 5R times – Rest, Relationships, Recreation, Refreshment and Revelation) are like that spring. If we don’t just fence off some every day (see my last post about mini-Sabbaths every day), every week (I fence of Friday), and every year (days in a row for vacation and sabbatical), the spring gets trampled and defecated, and we get infected.
Fence of some 5R time today, this week, this year. Use strong fence-posts and barbed wire because the cows of business, busyness, worry and overcommitment will test the fence!