This past weekend, Pastor Steve challenged us to look at our lives and to find ways to add more “margin” to it. I know for me, as I’m sure it is with many of you, I live a lot of my life on the margin. We all push the limits of our time, our relationships and our finances--perhaps not all at once, but at different times in our lives.
I never have enough hours in the day to get things done, so I’m always spending my nights checking e-mails and doing work at home. Because I’m so squeezed for time, I find myself saying far too often “I’m too busy” to friends and family. Some weeks I can’t even find an hour to meet friends for a quick lunch. And, when it comes to finances, my margin is thin! After all, now I’m paying back those wonderful seminary student loans.
As a child, I was the one that always waited until the last minute to get school projects completed. There never seemed to be enough time between piano, singing and violin lessons, not to mention confirmation, other church activities and school activities. By the time I would get home each night, I was too tired to get homework done.
I remember my dad helping me to dissect a large worm for science class in 7th grade because I hadn’t had time to get it done at school. And there was the time I had a sewing project that needed to be done for sewing class in 9th grade. I had not even cut the fabric out and so my mom and I were up all night getting the “dress” done for sewing class. To this day, I can’t even look at a sewing machine without getting nauseous! Margin wasn’t part of my world as a child. And, even in college and grad school, I would often stay up all night to get papers done because I was working all day. Crazy, right? However, I would bet that for many of you, these scenarios hit pretty close to home!
So, what is margin? Well, it is something most of us don’t have and something most of us need, but we don’t know what to do to get more of it. God doesn’t want us to live our lives frazzled, stressed out and fearful of the future. So what do we do? As Pastor Steve mentioned in his sermon, why not ask God to help you? Maybe it’s time for you to give your life back to the one who created you and ask Him to help you to find your way back to a life that isn’t lived on the edges, but instead is lived with plenty of margin.
There is a wonderful song sung by Chris Tomlin that is taken from an old hymn called “Take My Life and Let It Be” and talks about giving our whole life over to God – our days, our hands, our voice, our finances, our feet, our lips, our intellect, our will and our heart. Great advice for all of us who need more margin in our lives!
Pax,
Pastor Carol
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