Margin

Lately I have been learning about the importance of margin in life--mainly because over the past month I have had very little of it in my own.  One busy week ran into the next week and then the next and so on.  I find I can only sustain a fast pace for so long.  Life should be more like a marathon with frequent rest stops than a constant sprint.  Over the past month I have been living life like a 100 meter dash.    

I must confess that the word "margin" didn't initially come to mind in the middle of my busyness.  I had to be hit upside the head with it numerous times.  The first time came during a discussion with one of my friends at work.  The second time came when I was reading a blog.  The third while I was conversing with my mentor...and so on.  

So I looked up this word "margin" in a few dictionaries in attempt to discover its various nuances.  Here is what I found: (1) Margin = an amount over what is necessary to compensate for mistakes or delays; (2) Margin = allowing some room to move within limits; and (3) Margin = space allowed for miscalculation or changes in circumstance.  In other words, having margin in life involves intentionally creating some extra space to account for delays, miscalculations, or changes in circumstance.  And isn't life full of such things?  I think that there are also different kinds of margin that we need in life.  Creating emotional margin in life, for example, will allow us to deal with the complexity of relationships.  Establishing physical margin in life, for example, will allow us to give our full attention to the tasks before us.  We could potentially say that there is such thing as spiritual margin--but I am under the persuasion that everything is spiritual.  Regardless, it will not be enough to have margin in just one area of life.        

I have discovered that when I fail to intentionally create some extra space or margin in my life--in any of the above categories--a number of things begin to happen: (1) I turn into a real a-hole.  (I apologize to the hyper-sensitive for my language, but get over it.)  Things that typically would not phase me or frustrate me now cause me to lose my cool.  Things that I normally would handle with grace begin to reveal my true sinfulness.  (2) I get off-centered.  Priorities get out of whack.  I lose sight of the things (people) that are most important.  My failure to create margin in life has direct and immediate consequences for those closest to me.  (3) I do not perform at my best.  I am not able to use the my gifts and abilities to their fullest potential when I am rundown.

I think the only way to recover from a margin-less life is to get re-centered.  And the only way to get centered in the first place is to make Jesus Christ your first and greatest love.  I am convinced all other priorities fall in place when love for Jesus is the central motivator of a person's existence.