Margin: Restoring Your Reserves

In 1995, Richard Swenson wrote a book called Margin: Restoring Emotional Physical Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.  A printed page has a column of blank space along each side of every page.  We need some blank space in our lives; margin is the space that we need between ourselves and our limits. Do you allow yourself some free time everyday?  

We have a tendency to fill up every part of our schedules.  Our days and nights are full of work, meals, conversations, phone calls, texts, emails, news, interruptions, appointments, etc.  So there’s a tendency to fill up the blank spaces in our lives.  The problem with this is that when a crisis comes up, it pushes us beyond our limits, and then we suffer from stress overload.  It’s like being pushed off the edge of your limits, or off the edge of your page. That’s what leads to heart attacks, divorces, broken relationships, high blood pressure, angry outbursts, etc. 

If your life is filled to the edges of your schedule, and you find yourself exhausted at the end of every day, you are probably trying to do too much.  You need to develop margins in your life – some black space or free time between you and your limits.  What can you eliminate from your schedule?  What can you say no to?  Does that team or committee really need you?  How can you say no to the next new project that comes up?  Do you really need to work overtime regularly?  How can you free up some time to relax and unwind?  

The principle of margin is similar to the Biblical Sabbath principle.  The Sabbath was the day of rest on the 7^th day of creation, and the reason why God commanded the Israelites to rest on the 7^th day of the week.  The idea is that we need one day of rest and worship per week, to be renewed and rest our bodies and minds from the daily grind.  The idea for margin is the same – that we need times for rest and renewal, to recover from the stress of daily life.

If you are stressed out or worn out, plan to take a day off for rest and worship and renewal.  Plan to find time in your life, to leave blank, like the margin on the edge of the page.  Do this, and you will be blessed.