You can’t hope for space in your schedule or pray for space in your schedule or expect somebody else to provide space in your schedule. You’re going to have to decide. Put some space in your schedule. You’re going to have to decide to build some buffer zones into your life, some downtime. That means you leave some empty spaces in your calendar, as scary as that is for some of you to come across that. There’s actually some white space there. That means your smartphone doesn’t reveal the word “Overload” every time you turn it on.
The fact of life is, the faster you go in life the more margin you need. Most of you have your life filled. Things are going pretty quickly in life. The faster you go, the more margin you need. If you’re going 70 mph down the freeway, you want more than three inches between you and the other car don’t you? We need to build that margin into our life.
The Bible tells us very clearly that if I don't allow space into my schedule, if I just work all the time that is foolish. Ecclesiastes 10:15 “Only someone too stupid to find his way home would wear himself out with work.” Don’t you like the Bible? It cuts through everything. It’s very honest with us about the struggles we have. Why do we find ourselves having to work all the time?
It's like the story of the guy who comes home and his little kindergarten daughter asked him why he’s working so hard and why he has to always bring work home. He looked at her and said, “I just don’t get it finished at work so I need to bring it home and get it done.” The daughter looks up at him and says, “Daddy, I think they should put you in the slower group.”
Why is it we have to feel so important that we have to keep every moment of everyday busy? Life is a journey not a race. Why do we stress load everything? We’ve got to get there so quickly!
The truth is, if I really want to last in life I’ve got to realize I’ve got a whole journey of life to live. I’ve got to remember it’s not how fast I live that’s important. It’s how well I live as soon as someone gives me permission to slow down and realize that it does something for all of us.
What is the solution? The solution is to put some margin into your life. Margin is breathing room. Margin is a little reserve that you’re not using up. You’re not stretched to the limit. You’re not going from one meeting to the next to the next with no space in between. Margin is the space between my load and my limit. Hopefully your load is not heavier than your limits. But the truth is that most of us are far more overloaded than we can handle and there is no margin, no margin for error in our lives.
If that’s going to happen for me or you it takes a decision to put some space into our schedule. NOW - DO IT!
