“The Spirituality of Margin”

When there’s a disparity between what we want to do for others and what we actually can, we’re looking at an issue of margin. We know that there’s need in our church, in our community and in our world. However, if we’re tapped out on our resources – our time, money and talents because we’ve been pushing the needle to the red, it might be time to re-evaluate and re-prioritize. 

Dr Richard Swenson, author of “Margin,” defines margin as “the space between our load and our limits. It is something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations. Margin is the gap between rest and exhaustion, the space between breathing freely and suffocating.” 

In Christian terms, margin is the space where God has wiggle room to work in and through us. We’ve discussed what a blessing it is to be invited into the process as agents of God’s Kingdom. We get to carry the message and be the hands and feet of God! But if our hands are already full, and our schedules crammed to capacity, what can we do when we are shown an opportunity? It’s not enough to simply see the need. We are called to be a people of action, a people of change. We are called to be heroes, living distinctly different from those tied up with their own distractions and ambitions.  

In my favorite Pink Floyd song, David Gilmore writes: 

This season, let’s think of ways we can create margin in our lives, space to move when God shows us an opportunity. Let’s free up some of our resources so we can invest in others, and in the eternal. 

Jon Price