Overload is not having time to finish the book you're reading about stress. Margin is having time to read it twice. Overload is fatigue. Margin is energy. Overload is red ink. Margin is black ink. Overload is hurry. Margin is calm. Overload is anxiety. Margin is security. Overload is the disease of the new millennium. Margin is the cure.

As a physician, Dr. Richard Swenson sees a steady stream of exhausted, hurting people coming into his office. A majority of them are suffering from an uncontrolled societal epidemic: living without margin.

Margin is the space that once existed between ourselves and our limits. It's something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations. As a society, we've forgotten what margin is. In the push for progress, margin has been devoured. So we feel distressed in ill-defined ways. We are besieged by anxiety, stress, and fatigue. Our relationships suffer. We have unexplained aches and pains. The flood of daily events seems beyond our control. We're overloaded. In Margin, Dr. Swenson provides a prescription against the danger of overloaded lives. Focusing on margin in four key areas - emotional energy, physical energy, time, and finances - he offers an overall strategy for health that involves contentment, simplicity, balance, and rest.

If you yearn for relief from the pain and pressure of overload, take a lifelong dose of margin under the care of a specialist. The benefits of good health, financial stability, fulfilling relationships, and availability for God's purposes will follow you all your days.