Margin - The Intentional Life

Margin can be viewed as a boundary or space you build into your everyday life. It’s the place between our load and our limits. It’s the gap between rest and exhaustion. It’s the opposite of overload and it’s what we must hold in reserve for the unexpected.

Margin is whitespace and peace. It’s a place to do nothing, daydream, knit, doodle, take your dog for a walk or the kids on a bike ride.

Margin is room for living. It’s deliberate time you create for space to breathe.

Margin is not something which just happens. You have to fight for it and carve space for it.

margin knitting www.nancybouwens.com — Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

Living with margin might be seen as not using up everything you have. Think of it as reserving time, resource and energy for the unplanned moments of life. When we use all of the “white space” on the edges, we invite chaos and overwhelm to take over.

Job 3:26 I have no peace, I have not quiet, I have no rest and trouble keeps coming.

Author Stephen Covey once told the following story regarding priorities and making space for what matters most.

A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 2″diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The students laughed. He asked his students again if the jar was full? They agreed that yes, it was. The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. “Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this is your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children – anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed. The pebbles are the other things in life that matter but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff. If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important. “Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter.”

When we intentionally chose to practice living with margin we create room for a healthier mind, body, better relationships and bigger opportunities to notice the ways God can use us. We allow space to enjoy the every day normal parts of our day by slowing down and carving out time to see, smell and taste the small moments we encounter.

We can not do it all. We are finite beings and have limits. There may be short seasons when we operate in overload because we simply must. But, if we attempt to exist with our engine revving at high speed for too long we soon will have nothing left to give to anyone, ourselves included.

make margin time for friendships www.nancybouwens.com — Photo by Joshua Sazon on Unsplash

Is it possible to create white space when we are squeezed on every side? I believe with a few intentional choices we can.

Prune your activities regularly – ask God is this good? Necessary? Life-giving?
Add buffer space to your schedule – prepare for the unexpected because it will happen.
Walk closely with Jesus and surround yourself with a strong support system.
Plan your day. If you don’t make a plan, someone or something else will hijack your time. Guaranteed.
Create space for activities which feed your soul. Do what you love and spend time with those who bring out the best in you.

We are not designed to live untethered.

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God himself created boundaries.

Day. Night. Water. Land.

How much more we need to set ours too.