God-Glorifying Margins
Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a lifelong activity. You can’t check it off a list. You can’t schedule it. It consists of more than giving someone a tract. It takes more time than showing up at a Saturday morning event. It’s a way of life, and this way of life requires genuine love. Without love for Jesus and people, you won’t take the time to present the Gospel when God gives you opportunity. But even if you have love for others and incredible opportunities, you still might not present the truth if your life lacks margin.
Margin Is Necessary for Evangelism
The margins of a book take up space, but they aren’t wasted. Often, it’s the margins in the book that contain the most interesting content – the notes scribbled by a previous reader, or the stars and arrows in the margin that highlight the best points in the text. When used well, margins turn a book into a keepsake.
God often uses the margins in our life as the space where he creates many of his most beautiful productions. It’s the unplanned encounters, the casual conversations, and the unexpected events in our days that often play an outsized role in our lives – and often have a significant influence in the lives of others, as well.
Jesus used the margins in his life to tremendous advantage. It was during a spontaneous rest stop at a well in Samaria that he shared the gospel with a woman, leading to the conversion of an entire town. His leisurely journey to Jerusalem gave him time to heal a blind beggar. His unplanned evenings were often spent in ministry to the multitudes, and his commitment to discipleship meant that he spent plenty of unrushed time having significant conversations with his disciples. We still benefit from those discussions today, since they are recorded in the Gospels. Jesus didn’t pack his schedule: he left time for God’s opportunities.
Creating Margin
The Bible commands us to take advantage of these opportunities: we should be “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). I once understood this to mean that I should put every second to good use. Here was a biblical command to justify schedules, alarm clocks, day planners, and packed calendars. To be sure, there is application for these things, and we can’t justify a lazy Christianity. Nonetheless, this isn’t exactly the idea that Paul meant.
Paul’s use of the word ‘time’ doesn’t refer to chronological time. It refers to ‘opportunities,’ ‘moments,’ those unique points in life when time has an outsized significance. It’s this ‘time,’ Paul says, that we should put to good use. Far from telling us to cram our schedules with every imaginable activity, Paul is actually urging that, when we see unique opportunities to serve God, we should take them. The inconvenient conversation that suddenly turns to matters of the soul – the hurting individual who begins asking questions about the Bible – the friends that you suddenly realize would be more than happy to start reading the Bible with you – each of these are the sort of ‘opportunities’ that Paul urges you to ‘make the best use of.’
Many Christians, though, don’t have the flexibility to follow this wise advice. Saturated by a culture that prioritizes success and busyness, we’ve unintentionally bought into the idea that we need to keep every moment planned. In fact, the reality is somewhat more nuanced. It’s not that we feel that we have to keep ourselves busy. It’s the allure of all that we could do – I could go on this trip to Spain, I could work extra so that the budget isn’t so stressed when we remodel the kitchen, I could help my kids to learn another skill by signing them up for football – it’s all of these ‘coulds’ that keep us busy, unintentionally eating up our margin.
As enjoyable as it is to dream about an unrushed life, it doesn’t come without painful and drastic decisions. Unless you are seriously committed to prioritizing this sort of ministry to others, it’s much more comfortable to continue in our culturally-accepted chaos. So, how do carve out margin, when the writing stretches from the spine to the very edge?
Remember that every time you say ‘yes’ to something, you are also saying ‘no’ to something else. ‘Yes, I’ll work that overtime’ equals ‘No, I won’t be at home with my family.’ ‘Yes, I’ll go to the Saturday golf tournament’ equals ‘No, I won’t have time to meet with that coworker outside of work for a Bible study.’
Pray over your schedule, and read your Bible alongside it. Your bank statement and your schedule are the two most revealing documents about you, because they show where your heart is. What does your schedule say about what you value? What does God value? What does God want you to value? As you think about your schedule in light of eternity, you might find that your commitments start to change.
Take time to talk with people. Be friendly to the cashier, ask what book that person is reading at the coffee shop, linger after church to meet some new faces. This type of relationship-building often leads to the sort of opportunities that we are supposed to make the best use of. If you find yourself too busy for these things, you are probably too busy in general. Sometimes it might even be helpful to set a concrete goal: “I will try to have a conversation with someone new every day.” This may not be evangelism per se, but it certainly leads to it.
So how do you need to rearrange your life? Do you have the necessary margin to be able to ‘make the best use of the time,’ the opportunities that God gives you? Would you have the time this weekend to get coffee with a visitor at church who may not have a clear understanding of the gospel? Would it be too much of a strain on your schedule to have a God-centered conversation across the fence with a neighbor who is going through a difficult divorce or medical diagnosis? Would you prioritize these opportunities if God gave them to you?
If you aren’t sure that you have good answers to these questions, maybe you should re-align your thinking with God’s Word and lighten your schedule. What are two or three activities that you can uproot from life – activities that may be good, in themselves, but are hindering your ability to obey God’s commands? Adjusting our lives to conform to obedience is never easy – but the eternal influence that it can have is certainly worth it.
In place of comments, I would love to hear from you personally. Please reach out to me via the Contact Page to share your thoughts and perspectives on this post!
