No Margin
No space between load and limit = no time for divine appointments.
“I have no margin.”
The thought flickered through my mind.
Ironically, I was rushing through John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry when I came across this passage:
It's been said that margin is "the space between our load and our limits." For many of us there is no space between our loads and limits. We're not at 80 percent with room to breathe; we're at 100 all the time.1
I’m one of these margin-less people. Zero margin. I jam-pack my schedule with little-to-no room for error. One conversation goes long, one meeting expands its bounds on my blocked out calendar, and the whole thing cascades — one meeting, one appointment, one kid pick-up, slams into the next and into the next. I live a full and often frenetic life.
Hence, why I picked up Comer’s book back in the Fall.
Fast forward (haha) to our recent Lenten Mission at Stella Maris. My life is still moving at light speed and with no margin, but at least I’m aware of it. (“Name it to tame it,” they say.) On Night 3 of the Mission, Jim Beckman dug into sharing the faith and launched into what he calls “divine appointments.” A divine appointment happens when God puts someone in your path he wants you to meet today. This is a providential, graced encounter with another. It’s an interruption meant to get you out of yourself. It’s an opportunity to introduce someone to Jesus, your best friend. Note that at the bottom of it, this is what evangelization is: introducing someone to your friend, Jesus. And this is why I often refer to our evangelization “strategy” at Stella Maris as “friendship evangelization.”
In any case, I was listening to Jim and I remembered that I have no margin. I don’t have time for divine appointments. I blow through my day like I blow past people in the grocery store. That’s a problem! So, what do I do about it? Thanks be to God that Jim gave me some help, here. Jim invited us to pray for divine appointments. But not only that. He encouraged us to pray for the grace to recognize them when they happen, to respond to them in the right way, and that me and the other person would receive what God is wants us to receive from it.
This is my biggest takeaway from the Mission: I need more margin in my life, and praying for and having divine appointments can educate this need.
Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, 91–92.