What movement have you seen, studied, or been a part of that didn’t happen in part because people created margin in their lives in order to participate in that movement?  I’m seeing the importance of creating intentional margin in our lives as believers time and time again.  In our culture of endless options and fractionalized attention-spans, margin is more important than ever.

Tim Keller is currently coaching a group of families in Merced, CA – okay, so we’re watching a DVD series with him as the speaker/pastor.  He’s coaching us through this very thing.  Simple truths from Jesus to us are what we feed on as His followers.  We chew on the hope of seeing Him one day.  We feed on the peace and joy of being family together on this road less traveled, the road of simply loving our Perfect Master, Jesus, and loving one another, and loving the lost together.  Why do we more often serve “the least of these” as families and individuals?  Because we more and more realize ourselves to have been sought in our weakest points or most prideful points.  God showed compassion to us, so we show compassion to others, but how do we do this unless we create margin in our “Crazy Busy” lives for knowing the love of Jesus and showing the love of Jesus – SEE LINK.

Yesterday I encountered a possible angel.  He came into our office to help us update our computer system, and we very much enjoyed his time with us.  As we were “crazy busy,” he worked around us and was careful not to interupt too much, and yet he was so joyful and so much fun to talk to, that we often created margin in the day to engage with him.  As I watched him and my team engaging, and as I made a point to really enjoy joking with him and engaging with him, God woke me up to realize that this wasn’t so enjoyable only because he was a fun person to joke and talk with, but we have been growing as a team to engage with people with a sense of genuine interest in their lives.  As I watched what was happening, I turned up the intentionality and really sought to get to know this “angel” in our midst.  By the end of the day when we were all wrapping up our respective work duties, we all commented, him included, that we had a very productive day, but we also had one of the most enjoyable work days we’d had in a long time.

What would it look like if we truly sought to demonstrate grace to one another in such a way that is truly for the glory of God and good of others?  My wife and I watched a Simon Sinek talk last night on YouTube called, “Why Leaders Eat Last” – SEE LINK.  It’s interesting to hear Simon wrestle with the truths that God has revealed through natural revelation about humanity and doing good for others awakening deep and lasting joy far more effectively than selfish narcisitic behaviors, which will only awaken a craving that can’t be nourished and is ultimately evil.  If you watch a few of Simon’s videos or read his book Start with Why as I have, you watch him learning progressively the natural revelation about love for one’s fellow human, and the joy available as we do this.  I was reminded of Jesus and the attorney’s conversation and Jesus telling him he’s not far from the kingdom.  Oh friends, we must unpack the glory of Calvary.  We must day-by-day be won over by the Perfect Master, Jesus, as we serve the least of these and stand in awe of their beauty as reflective of our Suffering Servant Prince of Peace.  Jesus came into this world so low and died with such aweful suffering and then rose to such gentle encounters with His disciples and then went to the Father’s side to minister to Him and pray for us.  Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit that we might daily encounter God and naturally develop to have more and more margin to show the love of this Master to those we encounter.

My our joy only grow today as we experience God’s work in our hearts through His Word, His Spirit, His children, and His created humanity that we are called to love and encounter, that we might share the joy of KNOWING JESUS with them through friendship day-by-day.

Your brother,

– Torrey