Quiet Days

Something I read recently rings a bell for me.  It is by a guy called Phillips Brooks.  What is written is not a direct quote but very close.  “Someday, in years to come, you will be trembling under the great sorrow of your life or wrestling with the great temptation. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer.”
I have felt for ages that the most telling times are not when going through a fiery trial or difficulty, but the quiet times before.  To me that is the time of testing.
It is when things are going smoothly and seemingly in cruise control that I find I am most vulnerable.  That is when I am most likely to lose sight of what matters and concentrate on the mundane to the exclusion of what matters most.
When faced with difficulty I know I fight and resist and do what needs to be done to overcome.  Yet it seems to me if I have neglected to use a quiet time, a time where strength can be built, I am more likely to lack the strength when I need it for the fight.
That is not to say that all life should be austere.  Life should be balanced.  As has been said there is a time for everything.  As far as I am concerned there is a time for celebrating and a time for relaxing.  But to me there is also a time for preparation.  Neglect any one of these and my life will be unbalanced, and I will be more inclined to topple.
From my experience it is not profitable to concentrate only on one thing to the exclusion of other things.  They may not be the main game but to me they are just as important.  I liken it to a building.  Much I do concerns the structural strength of the building which is me.  If I don’t have it my building lacks the integrity of strength.  But if I lack the other things the building which is me looks incomplete of missing what is needed to make me strong, balanced and not an eye sore.
Right now is a quiet time.  I have things to do.