MARGIN
Life is filled with goals, expectations and accomplishments and the pursuit of these things, however if these things are not placed within the proper context of eternity then there is a tendency to think that everything must be accomplished as fast as possible because we only have a limited amount of time to work with right? Haven’t you heard the expression “Time is money”? However when time is not placed within the proper constraints of eternity and when the right utilization of time, as God intended, is lost now we have a situation that Richard A. Swenson describes in his book “Margin” as being a life that is overloaded and has exceeded Margin. What is Margin? Swenson gives an illustration of what Margin is in his book and introduces the term “Marginless” to serve as a contrast to Margin. Margin means to place limits on things. For example when you write a letter the left and right Margins serve as the limits. In life there are Margins placed on the amount of tasks that a human being can take on.
If you exceed the Margins you run the risk of overloading yourself. When two people get married I am sure that they never plan to overload themselves but on occasion this occurs when you add in children, careers, and mismanagement of time, finances and other resources. A lack of proper understanding of Margin is and how Marginless living can make its way into a person’s life and marriage. Currently when evaluating my life’s Margins I must admit that I have in the past have been very ambitious and as a consequence have taken on a lot of tasks that have caused stress within my marriage and family life. I am not saying that any of the goals that I have been fortunate enough to obtain have not been worth the sacrifice, only that I am sure that they have contributed to the nearing of the margin in my marriage and family life.
Education is a big issue for me and I take the time I need to become educated. The question is? At what expense? Do I pour all of my energy and efforts in to education to the neglect and detriment of my family? Swenson states that this would be unwise and that it would be far better to understand the proper place of education in the context of time that is also a creation of God. In Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1 God states: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”. I would think it a fair statement that “this applies to time and its proper utilization as well”. Pain has been experienced in my marriage because of tasks that me and my wife have taken on that overloaded our lives.
Presently, I strive to ensure that we are not taking on more than we can handle as a married couple in order to stay within the margins of marriage. As far as margin in emotional energy is concerned I believe that if not controlled that emotional energy can cause a marriage to spiral out of control and to control this I will attempt to establish clear lines of communication that allow for expression of concerns before these concerns manifest themselves in the form of undesirable behavior.