In 2001 my wife Debbie and I moved from the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota to the sunny southern shore of Maui Hawaii. We had purchased a small franchise and were excited to bring this new idea to the island where we were married years before. (The story is a bit more complicated than that - we originally thought we'd be moving to the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, but that's another story.)
We sold our home, closed our business on the mainland, said goodbye to dear family and friends, sold or gave away nearly everything we owned, packed the remainder and a Mazda Miata in a moving container and left for new beginnings in Hawaii. We arrived, selected a retail space, knocked on every door (residential or business) in the central valley introducing our new venture and launched our new fitness business. That was September 1, 2001, ten days before 9/11.
We came to Hawaii with a serious intent to slow down. We had just met physician, futurist, author and renowned speaker, Dr. Richard Swenson, the author of "Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives". In our time with Dr. Swenson we learned about the importance of Margin - the space between your load and your limits and we realized we didn't have very much margin in any space in our lives. Not in the things that mattered, time, relationships, energy, etc. So we decided a new location would be just the ticket and like so many others before us, we came to Hawaii seeking a new life.
In the years since, I've learned an important and painful lesson, the Margin that we fought to put in our lives is so easily replaced with new stuff, new pressures, new time commitments, and new obligations. One moment it's there and you're enjoying another beautiful Maui sunset and the next, you haven't seen the beach in weeks. And now, like the song says, "you're gone and I'm so lost without you".
God knew we needed margin in our lives. He knew we needed to set aside time to just relax. He knew that working 50, 60, 70 hours a week wasn't good for us. That's why, from the very beginning He told us to set aside a "day of rest". To the Hebrew nation, He gave very clear and specific instructions about "keeping the Sabbath", in part I believe, so that they would have the space in their lives to really enjoy Him.
God created the universe in six days and then He rested. It wasn't that He was exhausted from His efforts. In fact, His energy wasn't diminished one ounce during creation. But He set in place a critical principle of rest that He wanted us to follow. During His time on earth, the Word that spoke the worlds into existence - Jesus, deliberately planned margin into His life. He kept the Sabbath as God intended. True, He and His disciples were criticized by the Pharisees, for "doing work" on the Sabbath, but Jesus rebuked them for misinterpreting God's word and burdening the people of Israel with unnecessary laws.
Jesus also specifically set aside time to get away from the crowds, away from the demands of His ministry, to rest, be refreshed, pray and enjoy solitude with God. Now if it was important enough for Him, how much more so for us? My point here is not to say, we should institute some legalistic form of spirituality, but simply that if we don't live as God intended us to live, we ourselves will suffer the consequences. We all know what those consequences look like: such common challenges as burnout, depression, overload, stress, physical symptoms, emotional imbalance, and spiritual defeat.
Never before has it been so hard for us to "be still" and "know that He is God". Since we have such difficulty being still, how can we really know God in our lives? We seem to readily identify the symptoms. We agree with the diagnosis. But why do we find it so hard to accept the prescription from The Master Physician? If we don't slow down, we will crash and burn.
Here in Hawaii, you will often see the bumper sticker that reads, "Slow down, this ain't the mainland". This local exclamation reflects the relaxed nature of Hawaiian culture. It's also a good reminder if you happen to be driving on a Maui road where the speed limit is usually 20 mph. One way to identify a newly arrived transplant from the mainland is to watch them drive. Zipping in and out at speeds far in excess of our unusually low posted speeds, they seem to fly past you. Funny though, you will always pull up next to them at the stop light a few moments later. There really is no place on the island where you will benefit from pushing the limit.
I guess I've been here long enough now for that bumper sticker to become meaningful to me. In so very many ways it is good advice. "Slow Down". I don't know where I heard it first, but it is profound, "if you're too busy for God in your life, you're simply too busy". Maybe like me, you need to hear Jesus' call once again, "...come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
It's another beautiful Saturday morning here on Maui. I just enjoyed a great cup of Kona coffee, and now I'm off to enjoy beautiful PoliPoli State Park with "The Gallery", my friends in their 20s & 30s at Kihei Baptist. Instead of worrying about the 30 more things I need to do today ... I'm doing the one thing I really need to do ... enjoying God in His creation with my wife and dear friends and deliberately enjoying some margin. I highly recommend it. You should try it some time.
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