Margins: Guarding Your Time
From the Series—Boundaries
January 14, 2003In his book, How to Build a Time Machine, Paul Davies says,” We are all time travelers. Do nothing, and you will be conveyed inexorably into the future at the stately pace of one second per second.” Life is a zero-sum game. Time is a finite resource . Job 14:5 says,” Man’s days are determined ; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.” Each of us have a unique time allotment. Time is God’s gift to. What we do with it is our gift to God. Benjamin Franklin said, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.” If you want to guard you time you need to leave a margin, put first things first, and seek solitude.
Leave a Margin
Wayne Muller says, “There is a universal refrain: ‘ I am so busy .’ We say this to one another with no small degree of pride, as if our exhaustion were a trophy, our ability to withstand stress a mark of real character. The busier we are , the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others . To whiz through our obligations without time for a single mindful breath--this has become the model of a successful life . Let us take a collective breath. Let us for one collective day cease our desperate striving for more. God does not want us to be exhausted .”
If you want to reestablish boundaries you’ve got to leave a margin . In The Overload Syndrome , Dr. Richard Swenson says, “Margin is the space that once existed between our load and our limits . Margin is the space between vitality and exhaustion. It is our breathing room , our reserves, our leeway. Margin is the opposite of overload .”
Down Time
In his book, Courageous Leadership , Bill Hybel’s writes about a season of ministry when he almost quit. He said, “ The pace at which I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me .”
All of us need down time . The Biblical word is Sabbath --it’s a day of rest, a day to recharge our spiritual batteries, a day to refocus on our relationship with God. Jewish Rabbis taught that it was a day to let our souls catch up with our bodies . The word “Sabbath” actually means “ to catch one’s breath .” Life is deflating . The Sabbath is inflating . We allow the Spirit of God to breath into us!
One of the first boundaries God establishes is between work and rest. Genesis 2:2 says, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy , because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
Go ahead and work hard for six days--create an entire universe if you can. But you better rest on the seventh day or you’re going to get out of whack, out of balance, and out of rhythm. John O’Donohue says, “ To be spiritual is to be in rhythm .” And that means observing the 6:1 rhythm God established at creation.
There’s an old aphorism, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” We need to find a balance between work and play, activity and rest, creation and recreation. Jesus said, “Man was not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man .” In other words, the Sabbath isn’t one more religious loophole to jump through. It’s about leaving a margin.
Hurry Sickness
According to Meyer Friedman, most Americans suffer from “ hurry sickness .” Hurry Sickness is “ tying to do more and more in less and less time .” You can try to do more and more in less and less time but eventually you hit the point of diminishing returns where more is less and less is more .
In his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted , John Ortberg writes about a stressful season in his life. He called his spiritual mentor and asked him, “ What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy ?” There was a long pause. Then his mentor said, “ Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life .” And there was another long pause. Finally John Ortberg said, “I’ve got that one written down. What else?” His mentor said, “There is nothing else.”
F.W. Boreham said, “I believe that one of the supreme aims of a man’s life should be to secure a margin. A good life, like a good book, should have a good margin . The most winsome people in the world are the people who make you feel that they are never in a hurry .”
That is how people felt around Jesus! He was in constant demand. Everybody wanted a piece of Jesus. But he never seemed to be in a hurry! In Mark 10, Jesus is walking out of Jericho. A blind man named Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus and the disciples rebuked him. They’ve had places to go and things to do . But Mark 10:49 says, “ Jesus stopped .” Those two words speak volumes about Jesus.
Lead Time
Failing to plan is planning to fail . Planning ahead may not seem “spiritual,” but it is one dimension of the image of God. No one has more foresight than God. Ephesians 1 says, “Long before God laid earth’s foundations, he had us in mind. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family. He thought of everything , provided for everything we could possibly need.” In other words, God anticipated and made provision for every need you will ever have before you were even born ! That’s what I call lead time!
On September 21st, 2003, NCC will launch its second location. The dream is to invest $100,000, recruit a launch team of 100 NCCers, and establish 10 community groups in our target area. You can’t plan for something like that in nine days or nine weeks. You need about nine months. The bigger the vision the more lead time you need .
If I don’t have lead time, you’ll pay the consequences in two areas:
No lead time = No Vision.
No lead time = No Creativity
Put First Things First
Roger McKain said, “The reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first .” We need to do things in order of importance !
In his book, Developing the Leader Within You , John Maxwell tells a story about an accomplished concert violinist. She said that the secret to her success was “ planned neglect .” She explained, “When I was in school there were many things that demanded my time. When I went to my room after breakfast I made my bed, straightened the room, dusted the floor, and did whatever else came to my attention. Then I hurried to my violin practice.. I found I wasn’t progressing as I thought I should, so I reversed things . Until my practice period was completed, I deliberately neglected everything else. That program of planned neglect, I believe, accounts for my success.”
Maybe you need to reverse things ? Jesus said, “ Seek first the Kingdom of God.” Too often we seek second or third or tenth the Kingdom of God.
Big Rocks
In his book, First Things First , Stephen Covey talks about a speaker who pulled out a wide-mouth, gallon jar along with some fist-sized rocks. He said, “How many rocks do you think I can fit into the jar?” One by one he filled the jar with rocks and said, “Is it full?” The audience said “yes,” but the speaker took out some gravel. The gravel filled the empty spaces and he said, “Is it full?” The audience caught on and said, “Probably not.” He pulled out a bucket of sand and filled the crevices left by the rocks and gravel. “Is it full”? The audience said, “No.” He pulled out a pitcher of water and poured into in the jar. The he said, “ What’s the point? “
Someone in the audience said, “ There are gaps, and if you really work at it, you can always fit more into your life .” And that’s true but that wasn’t the point. The speaker said, “ The point is this: if you don’t put the big rocks in first you won’t fit them in at all .”
The big rocks are the important things. And if you don’t schedule them first, they won’t get scheduled at all. If you don’t control your calendar, your calendar will control you . A few years ago I read Eugene Peterson’s book The Contemplative Pastor . He said, “ The calendar is a tool with which to get unbusy .” That’s counterintuitive. Most of us would say our calendars keep us busy. But what we need to do is take control of our calendars and schedule time with God and with our spouses and with our kids.
One of my 2003 objectives is 52 focus days . I have enough to keep me busy all day every day so if I don’t schedule focus days my teaching and leadership suffer. And those are my two primary responsibilities. That means they get on the calendar first and I schedule around them.
John Maxwell says, “ You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything .” We need to do less of what doesn’t matter and do more of what does matter . And what matters most is God. We need to “seek first” His Kingdom. Jesus said, “What does a profit a man if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul ?”
There will always be more to do than you can possibly get down . That means we have to prioritize. To say “yes” to one thing is to say “no” to something else . Dr. Richard Swenson says, “ Regaining margin in our lives will never happen unless we develop the ability to say no--even to good things .”
Seek Solitude
Solitude is tough to come by in our society. James Cerletty said, “I’m dying of easy accessibility . If Alexander Graham Bell walked into my office, I’d punch him in the nose.”
I read a study this week, and how they come up with these numbers is a mystery, but according to this particular study the average American is interrupted 74 times every day . That number has got to double if you have toddlers! Sometimes it feels like uninterrupted time is an endangered species!
Dallas Willard says, “I don’t know of any answer to busyness other than solitude or tragedy .” Either solitude is forced upon us via tragedy. Or we have to go get it. Mark 1:35 says, “ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place .”
You need to determine when and where you can find uninterrupted time . And then go get it. It’ll probably be very early in the morning or very late at night . My most productive hours are 7-9 AM because that’s when I experience the fewest interruptions.
Sacred Space
I love Henri Nouwen’s definition of discipline. “In the spiritual life, the word discipline means ‘ the effort to create some space in which God can act .’ Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up . Discipline means that somewhere you’re not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on.”
Jesus said, “When you pray, go into your room , close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.” In other words, unplug, sign-off, disconnect. This is just good-old-fashioned good advice. Take measures to avoid interruptions .
Exodus 33:7 says, “ It was Moses’ custom to set up the tent known as the Tent of Meeting far outside the camp . Everyone who wanted to consult with the Lord would go there.” There was a designated meeting spot . And it was “ far outside “ the camp. It was away from the “hustle and bustle” of camp life. It was out of earshot so they wouldn’t be distracted by the camp noise . This may not be true of everyone, but the farther away I get the closer I feel to God .
There is something about leaving the “camp” that helps me connect with God. Old places help me connect to God in old ways --and that’s important. But new places help me connect with God in new ways .
A few months ago our staff went on a pilgrimage at the National Cathedral and we bumped into an NCCer there. The Cathedral is a “ sacred space “ for her. It’s a place she can go to read and think and pray. It doesn’t matter where it is, but everybody needs a tent of meeting . It may be a coffeehouse, a bench at the botanical gardens, or the metro. As I look back over my life, sacred spaces play a huge role. In college it was our chapel. I’d go there during the lunch hour when it was absolutely empty. The balcony was a place where I could pace and pray uninterrupted. In seminary there was a field about 100 yards from our apartment. I’d do prayer walks there all the time.
You need to find a sacred space that works for you. Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles, had seventeen children. How do you find any solitude with 17 kids? But she used to sit in a rocking chair in the middle of the house , put a blanket over herself , and pray. If she can do it, we can do it. Seek solitude.