Margin

"Going To the Sun" Road in Glacier National Park is a perfect example of the danger of having no "margins"

mar·gin  [mahr-jin] –noun 
  
-an amount allowed or available beyond what is actually necessary: to allow a   margin for error.


-a limit in condition, capacity, etc., beyond or below which something     ceases to exist, be desirable, or be possible: the margin of endurance;      the margin of sanity.


The last several weeks of our summer have been lived with little, to no margins. We have allowed so much on "our plates" that we have literally been flying by the seat of our pants since the beginning of June. 


I don't recommend it. 


As incredibly blessed as our summer has been, we have almost been drowning in those blessings rather than planning time for savoring them. 


It's because we have been operating with no margins.


Margins--You know, that blank space around a set event, or commitment, or activity that gives you room to breathe. Having healthy margins leaves space for the unexpected things to come up without upsetting the entire apple cart. Healthy margins enhance what they surround--they allow your eye to really see what it is looking at simply by setting it apart from everything else. 


We have blindly stumbled from one incredible trip or activity to the next until we reach a hard stop. Which, this summer, has been coming home to do laundry, breathe in and out, and repack. Often times, a "hard stop" comes in the form of an unexpected wrench thrown into the "works" because we didn't have enough perspective to see it coming. Maybe it's sickness, or injury, or a crisis arising in the life of someone we love. We tend to view those things as unfortunate, but isn't it also the Lord's Mercy to us in forcing us to slow down, even momentarily?


Positioning ourselves so that there is no room to respond to something we didn't have on our "list" is not operating with a focus on Ministry and Grace. It is living in survival mode. That's not how Jesus walked this earth.


There are times when we do have to go through an intense season with little or no margins, but when it is self-inflicted, it's not walking in wisdom.


It is only His Grace and Mercy that have allowed us to come through this intense season of travel relatively unscathed. I feel like we came through a fire simply smelling of smoke, but with no singes.


I don't recommend it.


This used to be a constant problem for us. To the point of having a friend who would regularly threaten to load me up, take me to a tattoo-parlor, and have the word "NO!" permanently written on my forehead. 


Over the years, as the Lord blessed us with more children and allowed us to homeschool them, I was convicted of the need to keep things simple. To live with healthy, wonderful margins. And that principle has blessed us for years. We haven't added all the extra-curricular or enrichment things to our lives that we would have liked to add simply because more is not usually better. To choose to live a simpler life allows us to focus more clearly on the things we are doing. Excellence comes out of long seasons of focus. We would rather do less with excellence than more, and have the quality of our work suffer. 


I fully intended to fire up the homeschooling schedule to start off this week. Instead, a "mental health day" was proclaimed for Monday. Good thing, too. I woke up to find Kregg and Caleb about to leave for work, but the rest of the house was quiet. I finally woke the four youngest kids up at 10 a.m. They were still sleeping soundly! When Kregg came to the house at lunch time, he said, "I can't decide if I would rather sleep or eat." He took a power nap and grabbed a snack on his way back to the office. Even though we arrived home Thursday afternoon, Friday was spent catching up on lots of things and then we had company for the weekend. So Monday was the first day to kind of feel like we could start to catch our collective breaths. And it is when we allowed the cumulative exhaustion to catch up with us.


Learn from our "over-planned summer": intentionally place healthy margins in your days. Choose wisely, carefully what should go on your "list." Ask Him for discernment. If you've never focused on margins before, it may be surprising how many things need to be scratched off the "To Do's." While first learning to live with intentional margins, it may look like you aren't going to be doing/accomplishing much. You will be surprised, though, at the richness He brings forth in what you do keep on the list. You will be free to change course when He asks. You will have room in your schedule to stop and minister where you see a need. You will have time to sit and listen when your child wants to talk. You get the picture.


In this case, less is more.