Blog Health of a Christian Leader Psychological Wellbeing Creates Margins in Life
Creates Margins in Life
Time, financial and emotional margin — capacity buffers, saying no, protecting rest.
Giving Permission to Rest (Replenish)
When a client comes into your session stressed, anxious or burnt out, there are many suggestions you could give to help them, but one of the safest and simplest is rest. Rest is, of course, not the answer to all problems, but most people find that rest allows the answer to a situation to become clearer, the journey ahead to feel more hopeful, and gained strength needed to grow...
8 Jan 2026
Who Matters Most to You?
One of the significant challenges that my mentoring/supervision clients wrestle with is work/life balance and managing the priorities of life. On one hand, we all want to provide for our families and to be great employees. The challenge is that we want to be both a hard worker and dedicate time and energy to those we love most in life. We often face conflict with how to spend our time in a way that feels meaningful, productive and true to who we are...
23 Oct 2025
Finding Your Sustainable Pace: Work, Life and the Long Run
If you ask any marathon runner, they will tell you that running as hard as you can the entire race is impossible. There may be moments for sprinting and pushing yourself, but what is really important is finding a pace that you can maintain for miles at a time. There are times to slow down, drink water and find your breath. It's about using your energy in a sustainable manner. This is also true for our professional lives; working hard constantly will only lead you to run out of steam before the race is over, compromising your goals, mental and emotional health, and making you much more susceptible to injury. A person who prioritises work over everything will likewise face risks over time; this can cause stress on relationships and negatively impact one's physical, mental, and emotional health...
28 Aug 2025
Using Your Time, Treasures and Talents Wisely
Who are you working for? You might have a boss, a manager, a board, or you might run your own business, but who are you really working for? We must remind ourselves that we are ultimately working for God and, while God is our provider, “the Lord is our shepherd,” we still must take responsibility for our time, our treasures and our talents. Are we using them how God desires us to use them?
4 June 2025
What does a Workable Personal Schedule Look Like?
At Verve Lead, we are big believers in the concept that what we do outside of work is as essential to our work as what takes place within our office walls and our work hours. The way we treat ourselves in our personal life will impact our work life...
16 Jan 2025
Bringing Peace to Others This Christmas
The Christmas season is meant to be one of peace and hope, but that can be difficult for mentors or professional supervisors to find in the midst of our work. So much of what we do revolves around the intense emotions of others, and engaging with our client’s anxiety, anger or depression can be draining. We are constantly reminded of how difficult life can be, and just because it is the season of Jesus’s arrival, life doesn’t stop throwing new challenges at us. In fact, the societal pressures that come with the Christmas season can even add more stress. So, how can we make the holidays peaceful for ourselves and the people around us...
24 Dec 2024
What I learned from Covid 19
A few weeks ago, Adrienne and I attended the C3 Church conference in Tasmania and then stayed for a week’s holiday. We spent a great day in Port Arthur with some friends, visiting a world heritage site that was once a British penal colony. We rested, explored Hobart and hung out with friends. As we were about to check in ... Read More
16 June 2022
4 essentials to ensure your holiday is restful and fun
What are your holidays like? What is the word that comes to mind? Rest and fun, or stress, or a distant memory, or non-existent? 1. Know the purpose of the holiday. Holidays are about rest, fun and building deep connections. It’s a time for creating memories. The shared experience of this time together allows people to grow closer. Holidays with ... Read More
21 Dec 2021
Restorative Niche - Chapter 3
Choosing Restorative Niche Activities 3 In the two previous blogs I’ve given three tips of six to choose restorative activities that suit you: come to Jesus and allow Him to replenish your soul, choose something that you love doing, and something that absorbs your attention. Here is my fourth tip: Choose because you will be in control. We often feel ... Read More
16 Sept 2021
An Act of Kindness - The Good Samaritan
We’ve been looking at the idea of creating margins in our life… buffer spaces so that when things begin to get difficult we have the room to handle the difficulties. It’s like leaving your house ten minutes early in case of traffic, or building up a savings account in case a pipe bursts in your house. We can do it ... Read More
26 Aug 2021
The Work/Life Balance of Jesus
Many people make compromises when it comes to work/life boundaries. They allow time for gym, rest and personal replenishment, but they will put those aside for others out of obligation, especially in the case of emergencies. This is how most people operate and it makes sense. We all have to make compromises sometimes! We can’t ignore emergencies, we can’t ignore ... Read More
19 Aug 2021
Creating Margins in Life
No one likes to think about the worst-case scenarios in our lives, and even less, do we like to plan for them. It can feel negative, faithless, overly cautious, and unnecessary… but it is necessary. We don’t need to live in fear, but adding some margin for catastrophe in our lives can keep us feeling safe and in control (as ... Read More
12 Aug 2021
The Secret to Work-life Balance - Boundaries and Priorities
There is something we all have in common… we all have to work for a living. Whether we are fortunate enough to have a job we find meaningful and fulfilling, or whether we are working just to pay the bills, we recognize that work is a huge part of our lives. In fact, for many of us, our work often ... Read More
1 July 2021
Managing our need for Social Media
Social Media–A Modern Addiction There is no denying that smart technology has changed our daily lives. We have access to everything: tomorrow’s weather forecast, restaurant menus, even our favourite TV shows right in our pocket! But for all the entertainment and ease new technology adds to our lives, there is a downside. Many of us have become addicted to our ... Read More
17 Feb 2021
5 keys for a great holiday
How do you prepare for your holidays? 1. Put it in the calendar. Early in my ministry life I learnt to set the date in the calendar in the first round of entries for the coming year. In planning the coming year, along with the things you can’t change—weddings, anniversaries, school, uni, required work commitments like must attend conference—holidays need ... Read More
2 Oct 2019
Absorbing the bumps of life
What are the margins that you are happy to live with? Margins are buffers we build to resource our life journey. They act like a shock absorber when you hit one of the bumps in life. Can you absorb the bumps? I used to live with low margins of time and money. The pressure of life and busyness I placed ... Read More
8 Apr 2019
3/3 secret of buoyancy —Replenish
3 secrets of buoyancy (I used to hate Mondays)—Reflect, Refocus, Replenish, So Mondays have become one of the best days of my week. I look forward to Mondays like I look forward to a great meal with great friends. I know my tank will be filling. Who fills your tank During the process of recovery from burnout, I was asked, ... Read More
3 Apr 2019
Replenishing Emotionally
Learning to fill the tank My journey through burnout and recovery has remade me. I used to just go, run fast, and pay little or no attention to how I was doing. To recover from burnout, I had to learn to rest. For some reason, cultural—the pioneer spirit, a warped Christian perspective of self-emptying, or just plain low self-value, I ... Read More
17 Feb 2019