When I first started this blog, I knew I would eventually be writing something about margin. And here we are. And I know I won’t be doing it justice here, but it came up this week, so even though this migraine thing was definitely meant to teach me a great deal about this concept, I must not be learning the lesson. I’m a slow study.
15 minutes to be still. It’s a homework assignment. I almost laughed because around this time last year I was asking God to show me the importance of rest and it took me down some studies on a Sabbath heart and margin in our lives that truly prepared me for the sabbatical that was my migraine catastrophe. Had it not been for those studies, I wouldn’t have been ready for the spiritual growth I accomplished during that time. But I knew that with returning to work, I was in danger. I told myself that if I didn’t have time to write, I was doing too much. But I’ve been increasingly unfocused and overwhelmed. And you know what I was told—“you’ll hear God’s voice when you’re still.” Duh!! I know this. Why do I have to keep hearing this? Why do I need to keep being reminded.
So I’m here, with this very cursory introduction to margin.
Remember, that the Lord rested, not because he needed to, but because he thought it important to set the example.
And Moses, in Numbers 9:8, instructed them to wait, so that he could hear the Lord’s command. He was in no hurry, he was still.
And in Isaiah 30:15, “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’ But you were unwilling.”
I realized the moment I got my homework that even typing the blog wasn’t protecting my margin. So God sent it a different way. And boy, am I looking forward to it!
Beautiful. Rest is so powerful and yet so undervalued in our society. As busy professional women, we tend to be doers, task masters, box checkers. Rest has to be scheduled in. Like seriously. And I am just now learning to schedule and scrupulously guard that appointment.