Margin: The Movement From Option Overload to Self-Control
“Like a city breached, without walls, is one who lacks self-control.” Proverbs 25:28 NRSV
Series: Margin: Finding Fruit in a World Driven by Progress
Devotional: 4 of 5
Progress is a thief and a liar, but it is also incredibly generous. Driven by the cultural norm that more and more of everything, faster and faster, is the ticket to the good life, progress offers the gift that just keeps on giving: the gift of options.
Today, the average grocery store offers an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 products for you and me to consider, which, by comparison, is eight times the inventory available just fifty years ago. On the entertainment front, the popular streaming service Netflix offers an estimated library of 18,000 movies and TV shows, all while regularly adding new content every month. And YouTube, the world's largest video platform, adds an estimated 3.7 million new videos every day, offering viewers an average of 720,000 hours of new content.
Whether it is the food we eat, the entertainment we consume, or the experiences we crave, we live in a culture that offers virtually limitless options. But what are all of these options doing to the condition of our hearts? Why do we often feel frozen with fear, unable to make even the most basic decisions? At what point does the gift of choice, the gift of more options than we could ever enjoy, lead to overload, effectively swallowing up any available margin in our relationships, calendar, and budget?
This brings us to the third of four movements that the Holy Spirit invites us to embark on as we seek to restore our lives to a healthy level of margin: The movement from option overload to self-control.
Proverbs 25:28 warns, "Like a city breached, without walls, is one who lacks self-control." In ancient times, a city without walls left its people vulnerable to attack. In much the same way, if we fail to limit the number of options we allow into our lives, we will continually fall victim to the "just one more" trap. Just one more video entertainment streaming service. Just one more social media platform. Just one more episode of your new favorite TV show before you go to bed. Just one more (you fill in the blank with your interests and hobbies).
It may be hard to hear in a culture characterized by indulgence, but if we are going to take steps towards injecting margin back into our daily routines, we would do well to take some time to wrestle with the following questions.
What would it look like to establish healthy boundaries for the time we spend on our devices, the products and services we purchase, the experiences we chase after, and the entertainment we consume?
What would it look like to allow the Holy Spirit to move us from option overload to a life of self-control?
OnThe3rdDay Devotionals
Devotionals that illustrate Biblical principles in a simple and short format that can be applied to your everyday life.
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