Did you know that pages have margins on purpose? That someone, some document originator and formatter, determined that they were required? As a matter of fact, our fabulous word processing programs even have quick link buttons where you can set all manner of margin size, from extra wide to extra narrow. Have you ever noticed that there is no button to eliminate the margins all together? No, in order to do that you have to manually eradicate them. The author of the document has to go in to the Page Layout section and manually move the margins to zero.
Why do you suppose there is no automatic "get-rid-of-the-margins" button? How many of you said, "Because there is supposed to be SOME kind of margin"? Come on, I want to see hands up... Of course you said that because it's truth. Who in their right mind would eliminate the margins in a document? When was the last time you bought a book (the ones made with paper, not the ones on your Kindle) that had no margins. I'm going to go with never.
As a friend of mine so eloquently put it to me one day - that intentional blank space helps the words in the middle of the page make sense.
And that is truth. I thought - because I'm so entirely visual - I ought to see what it looked like to have no margins in a document. I manually overrode the settings in Word and went to typing. Thankfully I type fast, so it took little time to fill all the blank space. I moved to Print Preview view and discovered - the document was barely readable. I could read it if I really tried, but it made me tired. Just to see if it would change it if I added margins, I went back into Page Layout and put in the standard 1-inch margins. Instant change. Vastly easier to read. That blank space is incredibly intentional. And - SHOCKER - if you double space the content it's even easier to read. I mean like - Earth. Shattering. Difference. Yeah, it makes the document longer, but so what? You can read it.
Apparently, our life is supposed to have margins, too. Intentional blank space. And it's supposed to happen regularly. I mean, no book has margins on like every other page. Margins are there on each page. Imagine that. My life is supposed to have margins on each page, in a rhythm so that if you flipped through the pages of my life you'd see those empty places. And those empty places would be right and good and no one would be weirded out.
And now it's confession time. I've lived a life without margins. My pages, especially in the past year, have been completely full of writing. Some of that is just life where the story happens so fast that you don't have time to leave that blank space. Other times, it's because I added all manner of notes to what was a perfectly good page. Some notes were valid and needed, others were completely unecessary. Sure, they sounded good at the time - they may have even sounded godly - but in all reality it was me filling up space that should have been left blank.
I suck at intentional blank space and our society absolutely rewards me for living a life without blank space. In fact, in some circles lacking margins is praised. Particularly in Western culture. I mean, what CEO do you know that was lauded for taking regular weekends? No you hear about those 15-hour days at the office. Sure we who are Christ followers can look down our nose at what we call greed, but what about ministry? How many times have we lauded those who are putting in every available moment at the church, discipling, doing another Bible study? Would you say, "Look at all the good work he/she is doing! My, he/she is so close to Jesus?" Would you praise it? I might.
But that is not how God feels about it. A read-through of His word shows me something else. It shows me that I am absolutely supposed to work hard and be diligent, stewarding my time, talent, and resource well, but it also shows me that there are periods of intentional blank space. These are called "sabbath." This means that you let the blank space be there and STAY BLANK. No notes, no extra.
My community group leader texted me the following quote from the very good book "How People Change" by Tim Lane - "There will be times when my allegiance to Christ means that it is loving and right to say no to other people's requests" (p. 193). A Gospel Coalition blog today noted that "doing flows from being." Even the weather has four seasons (in most places on earth) one of which is a dormant period where nothing appears to be happening, but for the vegetation it needs a rest, a time of intentional nothing. And then there was the tweet I saw today from JR Vassar (pastor in NYC), "God calls us into His work out of rest. In quietness we hear His call."
Intentional blank space. Ordained by God. And I suck at it. So what is a girl to do? My friend who alerted me to the fact that margins are intentional calls it busy-ness detox (and don't think that it doesn't absolutely cause anxiety - I'm changing my rhythm, of course it makes me anxious!). How do I get there you ask?
Well, I started by sharing it with my amazing, gospel-centered communities. I gave them permission to tell me when they see me writing in my margins. I've already let some of these people in enough such that they can see me THINK about breaking out that pen and bring it to my attention. No, it's not easy when my bestie makes mention of the lack of balance (and the fact it's making me nuts), but it is right and good. It's not easy when my community group leader tells me I have to learn to appropriately take (and to not do so is sinful), but it's right and good.
And it's even less easy to know that I cognitively KNOW all this stuff and would absolutely contend for it in your life but have utterly ignored it in my own. Can you say sister needs to repent? Oh yeah. Face time with the Father for sure. Man, I have to say, I sure am thankful for Jesus being so faithful to show me this stuff. It's never easy to see where you're out of balance with God's rhythm, but He - who is so faithful to complete the work He started - is so merciful and gracious as He walks me down this path.
I don't have to figure out how to create margins. God has so totally given me that through amazing friends and people who can speak into my life. The ability to learn to have that intentional blank space will come from Jesus as He continually makes me look more and more like Him. It's unbelievably awkward at first because it's not how I've ever lived, but that's okay. God happens to be okay with awkward. And one day, I'll look back and giggle at my silliness of not having margins and be so thankful that my pages began to look normal. And I'll take a sweet sister by the hand and teach her how beautiful blank space can be...
