**So I got this devotion in my email a few days ago. And of course, I didn't think it applied to me! Never me!!! Isn't that how it always works? OK. We won't go there. Anyway...I instantly thought of a friend of mine. And I wanted to give this devotion to her but at the same time, I didn't want the small argument that may come along with it. I was sure she'd tell me, "You know I have to help people" or "I need the money"...and I agree with those things. But doesn't change the fact that sometimes I think she misses out on the little things in life. But I wanted her to read this. Since I'm a checking, I just folded it up and put it in her Well, she surprised me (like she has a few times this week). I had kind of forgotten all about it and well into the afternoon yesterday, she says to me "hey, I liked that little thing you left in my slot." "You did?" "Yeah. I liked what it said. Thanks." Ummmmmmm...I looked at her funny but was pleasantly surprised by her reaction. I did ask her later if she'd hang it up somewhere in her house. She asked why and I told her that I just wanted her to remember it all when things just get way too busy. She just winked and I took that as a possible yes. Either way, for a few minutes, I think she heard a little urging from God. And yes, I eventually heard that too!**
When you're always busy...
Confession: I've lived without much margin in my life for the last few years.
You know, that space between the have-to's and you should's and just gotta's?
Work, grad school, my first book, so many good things reduced those edges to narrow lines and my weary self spilled red onto them.
Would I do it again?
Yes, absolutely.
Because packed onto those skinny pages of my life are also some of the greatest God adventures I've experienced.
Beautiful, wonder-making moments. Challenges overcome. Lessons learned.
But we can't live without margins forever.
I find myself, suddenly, in a new place where that space is reappearing.
I bike with my husband more.
I talk on the phone a little longer to the people I love.
I'm with my family on a trip to Alaska this week.
I've been thinking back to Junior High, to those scribbled notes on the borders of notebooks.
I heart so and so.
Swirls.
Flowers.
Clouds.
The stuff of joy.
And I realize that in the pursuit of all that's good and grown-up, I've somehow lost touch with childlike faith. The kind that tells you it's okay to breathe deep for a moment, to fall in love with life again, to color outside the lines.
The margins of life are the playgrounds of our souls.
Can we stay there always? Not this side of heaven with families to raise, work to do, and all the other good things God entrusts to us.
But can we intentionally visit?
Yes.
I beieve God is right there with us in middle of the busy.
But He's also on the borders of our lives, those spaces unfilled in our calendar.
He calls our name and we run to Him, children again, dancing on the pages of the story of our lives where this world and the next begin to blur.
Perhaps the edges of our lives are really the center of joy.
And "the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). So it just might be that in the spaces where there is less, we discover more of what we really need for all we are, all we do.
What helps you create more margin in your life?
When you're always busy...
Confession: I've lived without much margin in my life for the last few years.
You know, that space between the have-to's and you should's and just gotta's?
Work, grad school, my first book, so many good things reduced those edges to narrow lines and my weary self spilled red onto them.
Would I do it again?
Yes, absolutely.
Because packed onto those skinny pages of my life are also some of the greatest God adventures I've experienced.
Beautiful, wonder-making moments. Challenges overcome. Lessons learned.
But we can't live without margins forever.
I find myself, suddenly, in a new place where that space is reappearing.
I bike with my husband more.
I talk on the phone a little longer to the people I love.
I'm with my family on a trip to Alaska this week.
I've been thinking back to Junior High, to those scribbled notes on the borders of notebooks.
I heart so and so.
Swirls.
Flowers.
Clouds.
The stuff of joy.
And I realize that in the pursuit of all that's good and grown-up, I've somehow lost touch with childlike faith. The kind that tells you it's okay to breathe deep for a moment, to fall in love with life again, to color outside the lines.
The margins of life are the playgrounds of our souls.
Can we stay there always? Not this side of heaven with families to raise, work to do, and all the other good things God entrusts to us.
But can we intentionally visit?
Yes.
I beieve God is right there with us in middle of the busy.
But He's also on the borders of our lives, those spaces unfilled in our calendar.
He calls our name and we run to Him, children again, dancing on the pages of the story of our lives where this world and the next begin to blur.
Perhaps the edges of our lives are really the center of joy.
And "the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). So it just might be that in the spaces where there is less, we discover more of what we really need for all we are, all we do.
What helps you create more margin in your life?
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