Pace of Life

Patti and I have a great marriage.  But we both know when our next conflict will occur.  When one or both of us push ourselves right up to the limit of what we can handle is when it happens.  At the limit we have no margin. No breathing room.  So when a bump in the road comes and we are at the limit is when we have the most trouble.  We have learned to help each other at the limit.  To wait to deal with a problem.  To let the stress reduce.  When we mess that up we recover quickly but it took us a long time to learn to be that way.

All of our lives are busy and fast-paced. The lack of margin increases our stress and shortens our tempers. It can distract us from the most important things in our lives . . . and our relationships suffer. It can even affect our relationship with God because there’s a connection between our willingness to create margin and our faith.

Life is better with breathing room – when you are not maxed out – living with no margin.

No matter what you do, you’re going to live within limits—the limits culture drives you to, the limits fear places on you . . . or the limits your heavenly Father will lead you to. What’s at stake isn’t your progress – it’s your peace and your relationships.

Patti and I love to see how much we can do – not how little we can get by with.  We have to watch it.  We will live at a pace that is hard to maintain.  Patti recently cut back in order to make an adjustment in her life.

You feel like you don’t have any choice.  You feel like this is just the way life is.  You tell yourself this is just a season of life and it will go away.

You look around and everybody else’s life looks like that and you think that this is just the way it is.

But at the end of the day if there is no room in your schedule, finances, relationships to put anything else in, it is a problem.

God has something to say about this.  Matthew 6:31-34 (NLT)  ³¹ “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ ³² These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. ³³ Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. ³⁴ “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.