What about your margins?

                When you look at the printed page you never notice them but they are there holding everything in place with nothing within. They are called margins. They are there to provide space and contrast to offset the other content of the page. Margins direct our attention to what is important. They provide that unobstructed space to perfect our doodling gift with various writing instruments.

                I began reading a leadership book the other day and the first “chapter” was regarding margins. Just like a document needs margins our lives need margins. By that I mean time and space filled with nothing in particular. Places where you have the freedom to doodle with activities or unexpected turns or adventures of life. Times where God can speak because you are listening for him in the quiet and still with the electronic devices off (yes, they can be turned off). That work e-mail can wait until tomorrow.

                 One evening as I was sharing this subject a friend told how she wrote in the margins in one direction and then to maximize content then wrote in the same margins perpendicular to the direction of the original writing. Maybe something like to the left.

I had never thought of doing that. One, I write big and when in a hurry in such a way as to be unable to read later in just one direction. Two, writing at an angle to my original would probably create an “angel language.” I would be writing in tongues and there would be no interpreter because neither I nor anyone else would be able to read it.

                We do this to our lives as we schedule so many things so tightly that there is no room for an emergency or fun. That happens so easily. There are so many “good” things to do. Ball, dance, sports, Zumba, Scouts, church the list can go on and on. Then there are friends and family. Not to mention, opportunities at work and for work, all of these are “good.” The hardest thing is choosing the “best” from the “better” choices. Bad or good is a cake walk compared to better and best. We have to consider the consequences both in the near term as well as the long term for our choices. Too often we choose the good for now and fail to consider the best for later.

                Consider your life for a moment. How much margin do you have in your life? Is there enough time for God to direct you in an unexpected way? Are there enough funds to meet yours and another’s need? Are you there with your family, spouse regularly? Are there margins for the best things, the GOD things? It means we have to choose and live with the consequences. Ask God for the BEST choice. He will tell you and not in the margin.

In HIS Service and Yours
 Bro G