Margin and Balance

Dear Pastors

These two words sound the sweetest of them all, especially in these days of rip tear and bustle.

Margin is the gas you have left in the tank after you have lived your everyday life. It is the ‘savings’ or reserves you have tucked away to meet unexpected events in life.

Balance is a critical life skill to help you and me achieve Margin right along with simplicity, solitude, contentment and rest.

Our modern world demands excessive busyness, high RPM’s to the point of red lining, accumulations and accomplishments, and what’s more all this is at break neck speed. Everyone it seems is on the same treadmill and it is hurting us. Progress is a good thing for sure, but it’s effects on the human soul and on human flourishing are not always that flash.

Marginless living is fatigue, red ink, hurry, anxiety and the ‘disease’ of the new millennium……sometimes referred as ‘hurry sickness’.

A few weeks ago at The Peoples Church-Online (TPC) we recorded my new teaching series call, Margin – Reserves for Overloaded Lives.

This 4-Part series is an attempt to diagnose the problem (which most of us have an intuitive feel for anyway) and then offer a prescription for balance and health. We have a look at what the Bible teaches and how Jesus lived.

The Big Idea. God has a better plan for our lives. He does not want us to live at such a pace and without margin that we hurt ourselves, our relationships and all things that really matter.

This week’s talk (the last in the series) is on Balance. This skill is essential for long term survival and ensure the really important stuff of life does not get neglected. I take a close look at ‘life in four quadrants’. You can find it here

Finally, the first four people to leave a comment (positive or negative) on TPC website will receive from us $50.00 worth of free resources which will include one of Andy Stanley’s books and two brilliant discipleship pamphlet’s from Hendrickson Rose Publishing.

Blessings

Alan

Mental Health and the Church Conference. Early Bird closes tomorrow (Wednesday) at midnight. Check it out here.

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.