We can fill our life with many good things. But we still have limits and there’s only so much we can do. To add more often means we must give up something else – making room to fully enjoy the good we still want to do.
For instance, we get 24 hours each day, but rarely does it seem as if there’s enough time to do everything. Yet our desire to do more doesn’t add any more hours to our day. We must learn to make tradeoffs – making room within the time constraints we have.
Likewise, our house can only fit so much stuff. And eventually we might need to do a bit of spring cleaning to make room for any additions we want to bring in.
This principle holds true throughout our life and relationships as well.
For example, we cannot volunteer for every service project, do all the self-development exercises, and cultivate each new relationship that crosses our path, while still having quality time with our family and faithfully showing up to fulfill our work duties. We’re finite beings and something has to give somewhere.
Making room is intentionally considering our limitations and deciding what we need to give up to have the space to add something else.
To be fair, these are not easy choices, as we must often choose between many good things. But choosing one over the other is not to suggest it’s an unworthy endeavor – only that we’ve hit the limits of our capacity.
We end up not doing anything well when we try to do it all – cluttering our life and making it increasingly ineffective.
In the end, accept your limitations that you cannot do it all. Discern your highest priorities for this season and make room in your life to fulfill these with excellence.
