NO MARGINS

The sad truth is that most of us, or at least too many of us, are too exhausted to enjoy life. We don't have enough time to do what we would like to do and need to do and that is time to delight. If there is any free time to delight in the day, the moment, we find ways to fill that time rather quickly. As someone has said, what has happened is that there are no margins left in our lives. We've filled them in. And we brag about and delight in the fact that we find little or no delight in life.

Even those of us who are retired seem to leave no or little margins. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard in a hundred times from people who are retried: “I’m busier now than when I was working.” I’ve said it myself. I don’t know if it is true about those others, but I know it’s true about me.

When there are no – or very little – margins in our lives, there is little time for rest, for Sabbath and for Sabbath-keeping. Keeping Sabbath doesn't mean going to church and then filling the rest of the day with other activities: cutting the grass, painting the house, weeding the garden. Sabbath is a time for rest. It is family time.

Growing up I remember my Sabbaths, my Sundays, always being the same. We went to church on Sunday morning; had a light lunch at home with the family around the kitchen table, and then went to Grandpa's house for the afternoon to visit, to eat, to be with family. When we came home, it was time for bed. There was no going to the mall -- there was none. There was no shopping: the stores were closed. And there was nothing to do on Sunday evening even if you were an adult: the Blue Laws kept everything closed. It may have been an enforced Sabbath rest, but at least there was some rest.

Not anymore. Most of us have our Sundays filled. And if they are not filled, we wonder if there is something wrong. The idea of a day of rest has gone the way of the Blue Laws and a Sunday afternoon drive to the park or to get ice cream. And I wonder how many people go to Grandpa's any more for Sunday dinner. The problem is not that Grandma and Grandpa live across the state or across the country. The problem is that Grandma and Grandpa aren't home. They're out filling in the margins of their own Sundays.

We're never going to bring back the 50's (or before). Times and society have changed. But we do not have to be the victims. We are in control of our own lives. We can keep Sabbath, erase the filled-up spaces, make room for margins in our lives. Rest, leisure, is not a sin, no matter what our Puritan genes try to tell us. And we all have them. It may be true that an idle mind and an idle body are the devil's workshop. But the devil has a better chance when we are exhausted than when we are well rested.

Jesus always made it a practice in his life to not only take time for Sabbath rest, but he made and took time for longer periods of rest. It was the only way he could do his ministry. We are no different. As long as we keep filling in those margins in our lives, leaving no time for real rest, then we will continue to be exhausted and incapable of finding the delight there is in and to life.