Margin

My friend and former pastor, Brian, blogged about having "margin" time. An interesting concept, I think. A long and rambling post. I just hope you can get through it!! ;-)

How much margin is in your life? I know in mine, there's not much at all.

By "margin" I mean time to sit around and read, think, observe people going here and there. I think it's more than just time to "veg out", doing nothing. Whilst it might be physically inactive, margin time is still very active - at least, it is for me.

Click the post title to continue reading...My schedule basically looks like this:

Monday to Friday:

• Get up & shower
• Get my 3 year old up, dressed, and having breakfast
• Take the bus to work
• Work
  
• Take the bus home again
• Help my wife finish off preparing dinner, and have it with our kids
• Get the kids washed and to bed
• Monday and Tuesday nights I work from home
• Wednesday night is Home Group (which I wouldn't miss for the world!)
• Thursday night is music rehearsal for church (generally whether I'm playing or not)
• Friday is tidying up the house and preparing for the weekend

The weekend is generally just as busy. Often I'm taking my son to swimming lessons, shopping, or helping my wife catch up on the things that need to be done, etc. Sunday morning is church, and sometimes in the evening as well. The weekend has been good for those catch-up-naps, of late, too.

Now I'm trying not boast here - this is certainly not the quiet, relaxed life I'd like to live. Much of what goes on is necessary to keep us afloat financially, spiritually and emotionally. Circumstances permitting I'd gladly cut the neccessary in half to have more time for what I think would benefit me, and those around me, more. Things like writing, composing, more playing, more talking with people. More time for prayer.

Anyway, the point is that the marginal time is fairly limited. I crave the time on the bus, as that is where I get to read my Bible, or our latest home group study, or the latest book I'm into. Two 30-minute times a day doesn't allow for much reflection, but I certainly know when its missing.

I miss the days when we lived in The Hague. There was this fantastic cafe down the street from us that made its own bread, and on Sundays it served breakfast till 3 in the afternoon! When my wife was away on tour I'd often go down there for a beer with a good book or a good a friend or just to watch people. They used to give free Salsa lessons, and the music and dancing was inspiring. I realise now that it wasn't simply a relaxation time, it was the time I needed to put things in perspective.

You see, I think we need margin time in much the same way we need sleep. The nightly slumber allows our body to refresh itself, to do the repair work it needs to do. Having a nap may help, in that it gives my body a short term boost, but there is nothing like a having a good, solid night's sleep, even a few in a row, to totally refresh and enliven your body. Margin time is the same, I think, but for our minds.

With so much going on in the world, with the advance of media and communications, we're constantly bombarded with information, often whether we like it or not! Can you imagine what it must have been like, even 50 years ago, to not know what was going on in another state, let alone another continent? Today, Australians keep up with American politics like never before. We were all impacted by the Boxing Day tsunami's the very day it happened.

Our minds need time to relax, to refresh itself, and to take in and process all this information. We need margin time, to put things in perspective, think, and adjust what we have just learnt or hes ard. Without this time to let our minds wander and evaluate, to make the necessary connections between differing concepts, we risk running them ragged - letting the constant flow of information never be questioned. We end up letting anything in and become part of us, regardless of what we think about it. In fact, that's the whole point: without margin time, we're not thinking about anything, we're just accepting it!

Romans 12 : 2 (NIV) urges us:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Or, in The Message:

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Emphasis mine.)

So, this Christmas, take some margin time. Get out of the hubbub, and at least try to get some things in perspective. Perhaps there are things you need to evaluate that you've just been accepting, things that need to find out what God might think of them.

Have a very Merry Christmas.