Next Quest: Sustainability

Last night at my church small group, I was chatting with a friend when we started comparing strategies for staying awake while driving. Both of us work full time jobs and then come home to invest in relationships with at-risk kids and youth in our low-income neighborhoods. I also spend many evening hours at Servant Partners trainings whereas she doesn't, but she has kids over at her place almost daily until very late at night. Suffice to say, we are both pretty tired! So we laughed and joked about blasting music on the commute to work, turning on the A/C full blast, and sometimes resorting to slapping ourselves in the face to keep focused.

It struck me today, however, as I thought back to our conversation, that this is not a very good thing that we are so tired we have trouble concentrating while driving. I joined the Servant Partners internship because I wanted to learn how to incorporate loving the poor into my life, as Jesus did, and I wanted it to become part of me, part of who I am and how I operate. In many ways, that's taken place. I've received some experience and practical training, and as I consider my future, I am compelled to take into account how to include living out Jesus' call to care for the poor and the oppressed. But I think the next step for my life is to figure out how to do this sustainably, without exhaustion and burnout, and to find a balance that can last--for one's own sake and for modeling a healthy example for the kids and neighborhood. Figuring out a balance that doesn't involve hitting oneself in order to avoid a traffic accident.