Why Margin Matters for Generous Living
Generous people live generously. They give financially, emotionally, physically. They give time and energy, all for the sake of others just as Christ modeled for us. But generous living does not mean breaking yourself in the process. Having no margin in your life means that you will eventually have nothing left to give. In order to live generously, we must give our souls room to breathe. A healthy process of creating margin in our lives begins with evaluating our motivations.
What do you think and feel if you consider pulling back your time commitments or having fewer resources? Does it take away your sense of identity? Do you feel guilt or shame, as if you’re letting people down or maybe even letting God down? Do you worry that everything will fall apart without you? If you relate to any of these thoughts or feelings when you consider stepping back, then you have to re-evaluate your motivations to give. Healthy generosity is a movement of the Holy Spirit in your life that prompts you to give. Stepping back should not lead you to guilt or a loss of identity. Your giving must come from a place of peace, both in the giving and in the stepping away. Having a healthy motivation makes it easier to establish and maintain healthy boundaries.
As you understand your motivations, you should also clarify your limitations and your boundaries. You can’t fix everything. People will make their own decisions regardless of how much you invest in them. Financial assistance will only go so far if a person consistently makes poor financial choices. Your emotional energy is expensive and usually takes longer to replenish than a bank account. Boundaries are the points where your efforts stop. Boundaries protect your soul and force you to entrust people and situations to God rather than taking the responsibility upon yourself. However, you can only have healthy boundaries when you know your limitations.
It’s easy to look at a bank account and know how much you have left, but it’s harder to identify when your emotional tank is running dry. Here are two signs that might indicate you are living with an empty or depleted emotional life/margin: 1. Do you ever feel rested? 2. Do you feel like one more thing (like another phone call, one more conversation, or one more email) will simply push you over the edge?
If you can say yes to either of those questions, there is a good chance you need to be intentional about creating margin in your life. You need to make space to recover. Top athletes all have different training regimens but they all share one thing in common – they know how and when to recover. You will feel your limitations physically, mentally, and emotionally. Pay attention to these feelings and take the time to rest and refresh your life in order to move forward. God did not make you to be wrung out like a dirty dishrag after He’s finished with you.
Giving generously of yourself and your resources should come with a sense of joy and satisfaction. It should not suck the life out of you. Establishing margin is not a selfish act; it doesn’t detract from generous living. Margin gives your soul room to breathe; it gives you the opportunity to restore the joy in giving. If you need some specific guidance with taking steps to create margin, we encourage you to talk with one of our pastors.