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This weekend we publicly dedicated our daughter Daisy Grace to the Lord, in front of our church family at freshlife. We recognize that she belongs to the Lord and is “on loan” to us, to steward and raise to know and fear the Lord. We desire to launch her out into the world to shine brightly and impact her generation for Christ.

This weekend I preached a message all about time management. Time is the most valuable commodity in the world. You only have so much of it, and when it’s gone–it’s gone. We discussed how, in spite of it’s value, it is easily wasted (think farmville and the fact that the average american consumes 153 hours of tv per month) This is unacceptable. God wants us to redeem and invest our time wisely. Not that we can’t ever play video games or watch tv; but on our death bed we will definitely regret a life lived on the couch and off mission.

I believe that the mega, counter-cultural paradigm shift that is needed in our day, when it comes to time, is buffer. Margin. White space. Room to breathe. Selah. Sabbath.

Our world is frantic, in a constant hurry, always moving, always churning. And if we don’t choose to make a change and tune in God’s frequencies of peace, stillness and rest–we are not going to experience His best for our life. If we fail to give things room to breathe, whether in our budgets, our schedules or our relationships the only possible result is stress. And this is only going to become more and more important as technology, and progress continue to morph and speed up life, connectivity and the standard of “normal” in our culture.

I am indebted to the writings of Dr. Richard Swenson, whose work on this subject from a Christian perspective are the best I have read (by far!) His books: The Overload Syndrome, In Search of Balance, and Margin are all fantastic and helped me a ton in preparing this message. In the past, these books have opened my eyes to the lack of margin in my own life in different areas and has given Jennie and I many things to think through, repent from and shake up.

As we head into a new year I hope and pray this will inspire you to make the most of whatever time God gives you, for His glory and your fullest joy. After all, “Only one life and it will soon be past…Only what’s done for Christ will last! It won’t be easy, but you must pry some bandwidth from the mouth of some good things if you are going to have enough to give to the best things. There is only so much time to go around.

Christ was, to quote Charles Wesley,“Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.” For that we have every reason to celebrate, worship and adore Jesus Christ. May this Christmas be off-the-charts special as you give Christ the attention, honor and glory that He is due. From our house to yours–Merry Christmas.

from left: Jennie, Daisy, Alivia, Lenya and Levi Lusko