One of the big buzzwords in my life recently is the word “margin”.

I hear it everywhere.  I read about it on blogs.  I was even handed a book recently on creating margin in my life.

I placed it on the shelf.  I’ll get to it soon.

Right.

A couple of weeks ago, I hurt my lower back.  I was making the bed, and I just twisted wrong or stretched too far.

That should teach me to make the bed…

I suffered in pain for a few days with no improvement, so I went to our local chiropractor.

I used to be that guy who made fun of people who went to the chiropractor.  Not so much anymore.

He looked at my back, made a few adjustments, and told me that my spine was about a mile out of line.  He asked me what I’d been doing.  I just made the bed!

Actually, I’ve been painting a bedroom for my daughters.  We are getting ready to move them into a larger bedroom downstairs, and we figured it would be easier to paint it during the transition, rather than later.

But the stooping to paint, and the bending over the sink for cleanup, all contributed to the misalignment in my lower back.

And so, I’ve had to take it easy for the past couple of weeks.  My back is getting better, but it’s taking a while.

I’ve started painting some more, trying to get their room finished.  We’re almost there.

But as I sat on the couch, icing my back, I started reflecting on margin.

Sometimes, God places margin in our lives if we don’t willingly do it ourselves.  He causes us to slow down, and does it in ways calculated to get our attention.  It worked for me.

Here are three things I’ve learned about margin from this experience:

When God wants you to take a break, then take a break!

I was too caught up in my own agenda and plans to even notice that I was becoming stressed out.  It’s only after a forced break that I realized that I was releasing my frustrations and stresses onto my family.  A break was necessary.

When God wants you to take a break, the things that need to get done will get done.

Or God will create a work around.  In this case, I didn’t want to mess up my scheduling for our Wednesday night youth programming.  But God filled in two weeks worth of The Journey with alternatives to my busy week of preparation.  Not once… but twice!

When God wants you to take a break, it’s probably because you need it.

Often we don’t even realize it.  But with a couple of weeks of less stress, better sleep, and some relaxation, my mindset and productivity improved drastically.

I’m sure that there are more lessons to be learned here.  And I know that God will continue to teach me as long as I am willing to learn.  I just hope he doesn’t have to get my attention so painfully next time.

There is one other thing that I learned…

There’s really no reason to make the bed.

Do you create margin in your life regularly?  What do you do to do so?  Has God ever had to get your attention like this?  Leave your thoughts in the comments below.