Love in the Midst of Margin

Goodevening everyone! I hope this blog post finds you all ready for the weekend. I know that towards the end of the week (if you don't work retail, or are a Dr...or any other profession that causes to you work on the weekends), one may find that they are utterly ready for Saturday to come like its Christmas or your Birthday! So, welcome to Friday night! This week has proven to be an incredibly incredible week. Yes. Incredibly incredible. How so? Well, God has opened the doors to finding housing for the next 6 mos. Literally last week, I gave the entire thing up to him and in a matter of hours, he solved a roommate need and then just a couple days ago, he solved the housing need. So, in October, I will be a happy woman, relishing in the midst of a more spacious, brighter and a restorative living space. I am also rooming with a gal I graduated Seminary with (we Seminarians tend to be odd ducks) AND she is going to be the worship leader at a church. Talk about instant community with the Body. I. AM. PUMPED...and oh so ready to dive into deep conversations, late night sing a-longs praising the Great I Am.....seriously. Bring on Oct!! I truly, honestly, am fully anticipating with great joy the next steps God has for me in this move. God. Is. Good. And he does provide when we ALLOW him the space. So, that is a praise. I guess another praise would be that my view on love has grown this past week too. I mean, its constantly growing and changing and developing and gah-Love. It is active!!! But yes, my love towards God and love towards others-its being polished. Which brings me to two nouns found above: Love and Margin. I think we all have an good idea as to what love is....because when I mention it, I don't get any questions on what this is. Now, when I mention margin...the questions come. So, let me focus on margin first and then explain what I mean by "love in the midst of margin." In short, margin is that entity that exists due to the fact that we are bound by 1. time and 2. our humanity. We are allotted so much time in a day and also, remember, we are humans. We therefore, have x amount of activities that are able to fit into x amount of hrs. To try to live outside of margin is not the most healthy of choices. Because without margin, before you know it, you are trying as a mortal to fit 46 hrs of activities into a 24hr time span. Essentially my human friend, you as a mortal are trying to be Immortal. This cannot happen because, again, We...are...mortal. Not gonna change on this side of glory. Leave the Immortal of fitting in 1k things in the span of 1 min to God. Job filled. Case closed. Nuf said. Ok, so, creating margin is essentially saying no to somethings because you have already said yes to others. That simple. W/out margin, you're gonna go crazy. Plain and simple. Now, I want to now point out the love in the midst of this discussed "margin". Love is best known as this, "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters." (1 Jn 3:16). Jesus gave up his life for us. To me, this is a perfect example of "love is not self-seeking." (1 Cor 13:5) Clearly, Jesus giving up his life would edify that he was not self-seeking. I mean...if you need to think about that for a bit, go for it..but yea...he gave up his life for YOU. And he was God too..who was perfect and could have said, "Nope. These people don't give two cahoots about me. I'm not dying for them!!!" But no, he walked the road of shame, then got nailed to a cross to die a death I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Yep. That's Jesus for ya! Love, love, love! Ok, now that we have all the pieces together, let me tell you what I have been learning about love in the midst of margin. There is someone I love very much who I have found gives pretty much their all to everyone around them. In addition to this, they are also striving to seek and find an opportunity in which they are able to use their God-given talents to help others. Constantly on the move, barely getting enough time to sleep some nights! This person, needless to say, has so much going on that there are times that margin is on the brink of being tossed out the window. And because this is a reality, and because I also love this person and do not want to be seeking what I want, there have been times in the past and also this past week where I have to be mindful of creating margin for this person because I know it is what is best for this person. And it is me loving this person, because if I were to pull at this person and also demand attention from them, it is highly likely that my pull could be the very tug that causes them to break. All because it was what I (!) wanted and what I (!) needed. But again, love does not demand its own way....Love creates a space where the other can thrive. Love is pursuing the needs of the other outside of the needs of self. Easy in theory...but my oh my try it in practice. Its hard. Its gut wrenching. There have been many times this past week where I have cried myself to sleep because I've wanted so badly to have my own way. But again, that is not love. And if tears bring me closer to embracing and better understanding this love that is spoken of in 1 Jn 3:16, then bring the tears. If the feelings of frustration and feelings of impatience eventually give way to peace and patience because of the discipline of actively loving another, then bring on the frustration and feelings of impatience. I'll be honest, its not easy...but the fruit that it will bring in my life in the days, weeks, months and years to come!! Oh the fruit of love...and being able to embrace more fully this love that Jesus has for all of us-this Divine love...I want the struggle now. As difficult and heart wrenching as it is, I'll take the struggle, because I know of the fruit that my Jesus promises me. Yes. I choose Love in the Midst of Margin. So, I ask these questions: Is there anyone in your life that you could love moreso by creating margin for them? Or helping them to create margin for themselves? Is there anything that you can do today that is sacrificing your own needs to mak better another's life? I promise you friend, when you do, you are so close to understanding the heart of the One who died for you. The One who gave his all so that you might know His Divine and Perfect Love. Step into the role of love by loving and helping another to gain margin, to then have them maybe understand and feel the presence of the Divine Lover, Jesus.