We’ve tried to think through several life areas in which we need to recognize our limits, such as energy, resources, knowledge, and worry. No doubt there are many more such “margins” to regard, but our final one here is time / space.
That may sound strange to some. After all, what could be more clear than that we can be only at one place in any moment of time? We can answer with another question: What is more common than wanting to be elsewhere and wishing it were later (or earlier), or escaping our “boring” prospects via electronics?
We wish we were somewhere else, with someone else.
We wish we were doing something else.
We wish we were older, younger, or just that we weren’t at work.
We wish we were with someone we love rather than whoever is with us.
We wish we could get out of the house.
We wish we were back home.
You get the idea. We seem constantly to long for a different location on the space/time continuum. And videos of the past, movies about the future, and love stories of any time fuel our imaginations to the point of distraction (quite literally) from our present moments and present location.
The most common response to this problem seems to be just gritting your teeth and waiting for things to improve, sort of like hunkering down during a hurricane or tornado. We “grin and bear it,” “take one for the team,” or just distract ourselves with video games and phone calls, seething or simmering like a pot of pasta sauce on the back burner.
Needless to say, these tactics miss the opportunity to find contentment in our present circumstances, make a new friend, think a new thought, serve in a new way, or expand the horizon of our life, if even for a moment.
Also at risk is our losing sight of God’s sovereignty and will for us. Often we are in circumstances which we’ve dreaded and fought to avoid. Nevertheless we are there, and are somehow annoyed either with our poor planning or God’s failure to provide a better “Plan B.”
We can, of course, resolve just to eke out an existence at such times, but wouldn’t it seem better to “redeem the time,” knowing that there are “evil days”? Isn’t it possible to say (and really mean!), “This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad IN IT.” That is, I will be happy with whatever the Lord gives me merely because it is He who gives it, and after all, He is the one for whom I’m living. Isn’t He?
This is neither wishful thinking nor living in denial. It is a firm commitment to live life in the present, and be, really be, where we are. It means putting down the phone, turning off all escape screens, taking a deep breath, and looking around us. It means engaging those near us rather than ignoring them in favor of others who are miles away.
God proscribes us with these borders for His glory and our good. Maybe we can learn to say with the psalmist (16:5, 6),
“The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
You hold my lot.
The lines (margins, boundaries) have fallen for me in pleasant places. . .”
Just because He is there.
Don’t forget to allow for the margins!.