Margins

I completed my first zumba session yesterday, and today the only part of me that is sore is my arms. I’m perplexed by how such a level of cardio and hip and abdominal gyrating would result in only my arms feeling like they had a work out.

Last year, for a high school fitness class, every Friday afterschool a zumba workout was held via dvd. I was usually envious that my schedule would not permit me to participate. However, this new year has enabled me to enthusiastically attend these zumba “classes”. Yesterday the only people to finish out the session were myself, our amazing zumba-fanatic principal, the kindergarten assistance teacher, and a 10^th grade young woman with an outstanding attitude and gorgeous hair all the way down her back—perfect for the zumba flava.

I am optimistic that as more staff and students see how fabulous we look trying to mimic the salsa queens on the video, they will be enticed to join us.

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I am trying to protect the margins in my life. For some reason when I say margins I think of my friend, Graham. As I look back, I believe there was a time when I must have heard Graham speaking of the margins in his life and I recall feeling unaware of what that looked like or what it even meant to have margins.

Over the past year and a half I think that I have come to understand what Graham must have been talking about. There will never be enough time, you must take time. It is beyond just being disciplined in a particular moment or day, taking time to live a life with margins requires planning and really a whole new lifestyle. Of course, there is the requisite of “saying no”. But often when I “say no” to a fuller agenda, my heart and mind are just as fragmented and hurried than if I were to be actually doing those things I said no to.

Last night during a discussion with some other married couples around this same topic, my friend quoted Richard Foster in posing the question—would you answer your cell phone if you were already in a conversation with the One True God? Because the odds are whatever that phone call was about could really be taken up at another moment; it could stand to wait in line after your conversation with your Creator.

As it turns out this morning, during my time of prayer and reading, my phone rang.
And without a second thought, I walked to the other room and answered it.

When I sat back down, my friend’s question and our concurrent discussion about taking time and making space in our hearts and minds came back to my thoughts.