If the margin before Genesis 1:1 is where God’s plan begins,
then the margin of your life is where He is still moving.

We often think of the margins of life as the leftovers—the spaces between the “real” moments. The waiting rooms. The detours. The delays. The seasons that don’t make it into the highlight reel.

But what if the margin is where the real work happens?

What if the margin is where God speaks most clearly, moves most deeply, and reveals Himself most intimately?

The Myth of the Main Stage

We live in a culture obsessed with the spotlight. We’re taught to chase the platform, the promotion, the next big thing. But God often does His best work offstage.

Moses met God in the wilderness.
David was anointed in obscurity.
Jesus spent thirty years in silence before three years of ministry.

The margin isn’t the absence of purpose. It’s the preparation for it.

Margin as Sacred Space

When you live with margin-awareness, you begin to see your life differently. You stop rushing through the in-between moments. You stop resenting the waiting. You start looking for God in the quiet corners.

Because He’s there.

He’s in the long commute.
He’s in the sleepless night.
He’s in the seemingly unanswered prayer.
He’s in the ordinary Tuesday.

“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
—Genesis 28:16 (NIV)

Jacob said those words after waking from a dream in the middle of nowhere. But God had been there all along. The margin was holy ground.

Living from Completion

When you live in the margin, you live from a different posture. You stop striving to become something and start resting in what already is.

God is not figuring you out.
He’s not waiting to see how your story ends.
He’s already there.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
—Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

You are not becoming His masterpiece.
You are His masterpiece—becoming aware of it.

It is as if God has given us a mirror in which we see what we look like through our own eyes; and a picture of Jesus that allows us to see what we look like to God.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
—II Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

Margin as Mission

Living in the margin doesn’t mean living passively. It means living purposefully. It means walking through life with the awareness that every moment is sacred, every encounter is divine, and every step is part of the plan.

It means listening more.
Trusting more.
Resting more.
Obeying more.

It means living like you’re already in the presence of the One who wrote your story—because you are!

Reflection

Where are the margins in your life right now?

Are you rushing through them—or resting in them?

What would change if you believed that God was already there?

You don’t have to wait for the next chapter to find Him.
He’s in the margin.
He always has been.

Prayer

Lord, teach me to live in the margin. To stop striving and start trusting. To see You in the quiet places, the in-between spaces, the moments I often overlook. Help me live with the awareness that I am already in Your presence, already in Your plan, already in Your love. Amen.