Backwards

Mark Batterson post:  Guard the Margins = Guarding your Heart

I’m trying to guard the margins in my life these days, and it’s not easy.  In some ways, I feel guilty if I’m not busy.  I feel guilty if I can’t meet with everybody or meet every deadline.  But that attempt to be all things to all people is really a form of pride.  If you try to be all things to all people then you’ll end up being nothing to nobody.  Why?  You’ve got nothing left to give. No margin = no grace, no creativity, no vision.  By trying to do more we become less.

In the words of II Thessalonians 3:11, we become “busybodies.”

Guarding the margins of your life–in other words, managing your schedule in a way that you have time to read, time to pray, time to dream–is really guarding your heart.  Your heart needs room to grow!  If you lose your margin, you’ll lose your spiritual edge.  The first thing to go is a sensitivity to the prompting to the Holy Spirit.  You don’t have time to obey those promptings because you’ve got places to go and things to do. The next thing you know you’ve got an inverse relationship with God. Instead of living a Spirit led life, you want God to follow you’re lead.  You’re no longer serving God’s purposes. You want Him to serve your purposes. You’re no longer following Christ. You want him to follow you.

When we lose our margin we get it backwards.