Why to create margin

What to do when...You have too much to do.

Have you ever considered busyness to be an idol? Can we admit that many times we know we are too busy for it to be healthy? So why is this? Why do we allow our time to become so monopolized by schedules and commitment? Do we claim our identity, perceive our value, in how busy we can be?

One of the most popular Christmas gift items on those rolling advertisements on the right hand of my Facebook page, was day planners. Some of these ads touted their product as the way to achieve all your goals for the new year. Others claimed their product could help prioritize your life, freeing up room for other things. 

Another gimmick touted us to learn how to practice zero-based calendaring. Thereby scheduling every day full so that no time is ever wasted. Whew! I am tired already.

Busyness is idolatry when I believe I am the only one who can do it right. One relief from these full schedules, is to practice leadership development - in our workplace and even at home. We will soon free up time, allowing the margin we need to spend more time loving our family, teaching our children, being a friend who cares.

Read Ecclesiastics3:1-11 to understand how there is a time for everything.

  

Exodus 18:8-10

The Wisdom of Dirty Harry

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

I believe it was Saint Clint of Eastwood who said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”¹ Though some religious scholars may debate his overall world view, few can dispute insight of such profundity.

Nowhere are our limitations so clear as when we contemplate the infinite with our finite minds. Our “advanced understanding” of the natural world around us should have disabused us from any notion of God by now, yet we cannot escape the inner awareness of His being. Instead, we consider the magnificence of all creation, and our soul silently testifies what our minds may not care to admit, “Surely, there is more, something even greater than this.” So we crane our necks to peer into the unseen, only to be blinded by the glare of our physical boundaries. 

God has set into our hearts a silent awareness of an eternity we cannot comprehend, so how do we face an uncertain future that certainly awaits us? One way is to take the word of the One who’s been there. “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man,” said Jesus. We can trust what He says about eternity, for His credentials are impeccable, not only by His own word, but also by the prophets who proclaimed Him over hundreds and thousands of years before His coming. He is the promised Ruler “from ancient times” (Micah 5:2); we can rely on His promises of what is yet to come.

Yet many of us reject the testimony of Him who speaks with authority—the One who has been where we hope to go—convincing ourselves, instead, that eternity is what we feel it must be. Then we affirm everyone else’s fancies, even though they contradict our own. Everyone is right; no one is wrong, except perhaps the One with the exclusive truth claim: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

"Feeling" would be fine if we were playing parlor games, but we’re not. We are talking about eternity, and the decisions we make now have ultimate consequences. The informed choice is to entrust ourselves to the sure and certain promises of the One who came from a reality none of us has seen, but to which all of us are going. Alternatively, we can go with our gut, but before we base forever-decisions on what we feel, we do well to ponder once more the insight of Saint Clint: “You’ve gotta ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya . . . ?” <sup>2

1</sup> Daily, R. & Post, T. (1973). Magnum Force. US: Warner Bros.
² Siegel, D. & Daily, R. (1971). Dirty Harry. US: Warner Bros.

[Read the Scripture for the day in Ecclesiastes 3:9-22.] 

Psalm 22:12-21

"But you, LORD, do not be far from me. 

You are my strength; come quickly to help me. 

Deliver me from the sword, 

my precious life from the power of the dogs. 

Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; 

save me from the horns of the wild oxen." (Psalm 22:19-21)

Our lives are filled with many seasons (Ecclesiastes 3).  There are times when we face sickness and even death; times when a new life brings joy and happiness, then too there are the periods when we search for meaning and rejoice in peace and serenity.  Seasons can change from day to day, just as life does.

Whatever the stage we find ourselves, God is there with us.  My journal is filled with pleas to Him to keep me close.  I know I don't need to beg Him to stay close to me - that is where He always is.  But, sometimes I will stray or merely move away, out of earshot.  It is those times I must ask God to keep me close to Him.

The line above which is in bold (emphasis by this writer) is a prayer I keep tucked in my heart and use daily.  

You are my strength; come quickly to help me. A day doesn't go by when I don't need His help.  What season do you find yourself residing in today?

Read Psalm 22 text here.

Listen to Psalm 22 here.