Why Your Schedule Needs a Buffer

I’m guessing many of you have no white space in your appointment book. Instead, it’s absolutely crammed with appointments, reminders and tasks. You’ve left no margin in your life and no place for rest.

If you want margin in your life, you’ll need to schedule a buffer yourself. No one else can do this for you. This means actually leaving some empty spaces in your planner—a pretty scary thought to some of us.

But here’s a fact about life: The faster you go, the more margin you need. If you’re going 70 miles per hour down the freeway, you want more than three inches between you and the car in front of you, don’t you? It’s no different in life. Most of us in ministry have lives that are filled to the brim with activity. You start your day running, and it only gets crazier as the day goes on. Since you’re going so fast, you need margin all the more. And you have to build that margin into your day. 

The Bible tells us very clearly that if we don’t allow space into our schedule—if we just work all the time—we’re foolish. Ecclesiastes 10:15 says, “Only someone too stupid to find his way home would wear himself out with work” (GNT).

The Bible can be blunt sometimes! 

That verse reminds me of this story of a guy who comes home with a big pile of work he needs to finish. His little kindergarten daughter looks at the pile and asks him why he’s working so hard and why he always has to bring work home. The father looks at her and says, “The problem is, I just don’t get it all finished at work so I need to bring it home and get it done here.”

The daughter looks up at him and says, “Daddy, I think they should put you in the slower group.”

Too often, we think that if we’re not busy all the time, we’re not doing enough. We think we’re letting someone down—ourselves, our families, our churches, or even God. 

But that’s just not reality.

The truth is, life is not a race; it’s a journey.

If you really want to last in ministry, you need to stop and realize that life is long. It’s not how fast you live that’s important; it’s how well you live.

Pastor, maybe you just need someone to give you permission to slow down. Why not consider this your permission?