25 July 2007 Devotion for Today “Margin” John 10:10
You might want to look at the page of a book or the Scripture text to read along with this devotional today. What are you reading? The fact that you are able to read it at all is because these words that you see are defined not by the printed matter that you see in front of you, but by the white space to the top, bottom, left and right sides that you normally do not notice. This white space, serving as a border and demarcating the printed matter is gives order and meaning to everything to the inside of the page. This white space is called the margin. This margin is not incidental- for in fact if we didn’t have margin on the page, the book you are looking, the page of your magazine or even your Bible, would be very difficult to read. In fact, the words on the page, without the margin, would be almost incomprehensible. For instance, if you are reading a book with no margin on the left side where the book is bound, you would not be able to see the words squeezed in on that side. It would be so difficult to read that you would just set down that book with no margin and find something else to read.
What was the point of that whole illustration? To demonstrate to you that you take margin out of a book or a page and you may not be able to read it, or make much sense- but unfortunately that is what we have done to life. We have literally snatched, chopped, sliced, and otherwise pulled out the margin . But you take the margin out of life, and what you have done is to overload your life so much that its only a matter of time before emotional, financial, spiritual, moral, and physical breakdown is going to occur. Being “marginless” as defined by Dr. Richard Swenson “is when you end up being 30 minutes late to the doctors office because you were 20 minutes late getting out of the bank because you were 10 minutes late dropping the kids off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station- and you forgot your wallet! Margin, on the other hand, is having breath left at the top of the staircase, money left at the end of the month, and sanity left at the end of your kids’ adolescence.”
People seem to be frazzled beyond the breaking point these days. We hear more and more of people “flipping out” in tragedies like Columbine and Virginia Tech. About a third of Americans are on some kind of medication for their nerves or for their stomachs. One wonders, did God ever mean for life to be this hard? Jesus came to give us eternal life- which is the ultimate expression of what margin is all about. You never see Jesus stressed-out . He was extremely busy, and yet not once did He miss that time to be with His heavenly Father. But when you observe the at the life of Jesus, you see someone who was never in a hurry, yet He only had three years to accomplish what God sent Him on Earth to do. He said in John 10:10 “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly- He was not only talking about eternity. He was also talking about time. Time right here on earth, and how to experience that abundant life of margin that God desires us to have.
Perhaps you might consider what margin(s) do you need to reset in your life today? We’ll be looking more at this subject this week. But after reading this devotional, why not indulge in a nap and restore some energy to face the rest of the day. Stop and pray, and thank God for the margin of time you have with Him. Turn around from the computer and greet that child or loved one, or even that workmate and tell them how much you appreciate them.
Then you may be on the way to having a blessed day!
Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com
jcrussell@liberty.edu
Church website: http://25621.lifewaylink.com
Devotion Archives: http://www.msnusers.com/DevotionforToday
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