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"Margin-making is an Act of Faith"

Writer's picture: Angelique KnaupAngelique Knaup

Be Still and Know

I can't shake off the thought that we must step away from life's busyness and find solitude and silence. Everywhere I turn, I hear people lamenting the noise and busyness of life, and maybe I need to keep speaking (and writing) about these ideas.  


A couple of weeks ago, our little Figs community group discussed a newsletter from S. D. Smith of Green Ember fame. (If you haven't read this series with your kiddos, sign up for his newsletter now, and you'll get a free copy of the first audiobook—I'll wait here.)


In his newsletter, S. D. Smith wrote about the importance of book margins and how books would be illegible without them. He used that illustration to show how we should not fill our days to the brim and live our lives with margin.


"Margin-making is an act of faith. It is a surrender to a providential God. It is a humble act. It is ceding power from ignorance to omniscience. It is childlike, hopeful, brave, and beautiful.


You will today be told you need to do a hundred more things to qualify as productive, as righteous, as loyal. You will hear it said, infer it from passive aggressive counselors, and probably say it to yourself on repeat all day. You will be invited to do more, then cajoled, then shamed.


You need to think this. You need to do that. You need to do more. More. More. More."


We need to reduce our busyness, noise, and distractions to have space.


Busyness is not a virtue quote

My spiritual disciplines study group is reading Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools by Tyler Staton. This week's section was titled Be Still and Know and tackled the issue of busyness. Tyler writes that we tend "to attribute the complexity and busyness of our lives to a false culprit." Blaming it on our workloads, the activity in our cities, our season in life and a myriad of other things. Tyler writes, "Your inner life is not a mirror image of your environment. If anything, the opposite is true. We create an environment that mirrors our inner life." 


Ouch! So, having space (or margin) is not just about pruning back on the external stuff.


"Strained by the very mad pace of our daily outer burdens, we are further strained by an inward uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power. If only we could slip over into that Center! If only we could find the Silence which is the source of sound!"

--Thomas Kelly, quoted by Tyler Staton


The idea that we "find the Silence which is the source of sound" sounds similar to something John Mark Comer wrote: "In silence and solitude, our souls finally come home. That's what Jesus meant by "abide", the verb of abode or home. The place of rest. We come back to our places of soul rest."


Tyler Staton says we can "practice silence as a sacrificial offering to God". One way is to pray silently: Start with a breath prayer by breathing deeply and exhaling slowly three times. With each breath, you could say something like "Here I am, Lord", "Be still my soul", or "Lord, you are my shepherd". Sit quietly and wait on the Lord. Start with two minutes and build it up from there. 


I'm praying that we all can find more rest, space, or margin, in our everyday lives. 






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