Allowing Margin In My Life Lets Me Say "Yes' to God

In summary of Ecclesiastes 4:6 it says, “... it is better to have only a little, with peace of mind, than be busy all the time with both hands, trying to catch the wind.”

Bottom line:

Better to have a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil, busyness and a striving after wind.

What this means to me:

It is better to for me to have a simple uncomplicated schedule (life) with peace than to have an overloaded and busy all the time schedule filled stress, unrest with no end in sight.  This scripture is a subtle reminder of the concept seen in other verses that teach me that my body need downtime in order to heal and re-energize.  

This is especially important to me right now as I have taken on an accelerated program to complete my bachelors degree online.  While the online course is flexible in scheduling, it is still requires a lot of extra time and effort in order to do my best.  Given this new commitment It is important for me to make sure I schedule downtime in my life.  Currently I have commitments when I’m in and out of town (Wednesday nights for worship team rehearsal when in town, Monday nights for travel when I’m out of town.  In order to get in the 10-15 hours it will take, I need to schedule several hours Monday - Thursday (missing some Mondays and some Wednesdays.)  I’ll strive to keep my Friday and Saturday evenings as free as possible.  I’ll also likely need to work 4 hours during the day on Saturdays and possibly some times on Sunday afternoons.  I should also plan to schedule a vacation day off here and there just for rest / catch-up on school activities.

With this new commitment, plus work, I’ll need to make sure I create some margin in my life.  If I get overloaded by activity, I’ll end up only thinking of myself (I’ll be in survival mode) just trying to make it through the day.  I’ll also become unavailable to God for his use in the world.   I need to make sure I can still be flexible enough for when God may tap me on my shoulder and ask me to do something.  Planning in some margin will still leave me available for God to use.   I need to learn and appreciate the benefits of margin.  God may very well have important things for me to do and I want to make sure that I don’t miss it.