How's Your Margin?

After four years of college and three years of seminary I am very familiar with the word “margin.” When it comes to writing papers there are always margins, you know, the white edges surrounding the paper. I knew of a few folks who would always try to make the margins wider on their papers so they could get away with writing less. The professors were always a step ahead of them though.

In all seriousness, margin is something many of need to look at again. I’m not referring to the white space on the edge of a paper but the margin in our lives. Are you often feeling too busy? Then you have no margin of time in your life. Do you often say things like this: “I don’t have two nickels to rub together.” If you do, then you have no financial margin in your life. If we leave no room for margin in our lives then usually that means we also squeeze God out as well. In the Old Testament God told the Israelites to leave margin. Look at what God told the Israelites in Leviticus 19:9-10:

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.”

This same teaching from God is repeated again in Deuteronomy 24:19-22. If we do not have time to serve God by serving others, then we probably have no margin. We are gleaning right up to the edge of our field time-wise. If we do not have any money or other resources to share with a brother or sister in need, again, we are probably living right up to the edge of our field, financially speaking. In today’s language that means we are probably living beyond our means.

Are you maintaining healthy margins in your life? If not, what will it take for you to do so?  What steps do you need to take to stop "harvesting" right up to the edge?  God, and other too, do not want or need our leftovers.