"In his book, ""A Minute of Margin,"" Richard Swenson points out how you can go into a forest and select a 10 foot sapling, bend it over and let it go, and it will return to its normal height and straightness. However, if you bend it again, this time a bit further, and once again further still, you will eventually hear a snap. Now let it go, and it won't come back. It is broken. That's an illustration of what happens when we don't schedule enough balance into our lives. We need a certain amount of pressure and tension to work well and achieve to our full potential. But when the stress exceeds that level, the result is exhaustion, frustration and burnout. To avoid snapping, its import that we learn to build time into our schedules for recreation, physical exercise and Scripture meditation. These are not just optional luxuries. They're absolutely necessary, if we want to redeem the time. "