Stealing Time

I get a little "focused" on things sometimes. Some would say I suffer at times from OCD--Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Probably not, as an OCDer would seem to me to be the person who washes his hands all of the time, or cannot leave her house without checking 57 times to make sure the oven is turned off.

So, today, I got focused on time. Driving to the grocery store--again--I wondered to myself, "Self, how many hours do you think you have spent in your life just driving around?" Hmmm....

I pulled over and pulled out the calculator.

In order to come up with some legit numbers, I had to make some logical assumptions. First, I had to average out how many miles a day I have driven since I turned 16. Some deliberating took me to an average of 25.

For the benefit of the exercise, I jumped ahead 2 weeks to go ahead and make myself 40 years old. Man, that's old...

Anyway, I have been driving for 34 years, or 12,412 days (yes, that includes leap year). That would put my total miles driven at 310,250.

So again I asked myself, "Self, what does this mean, and what does this tell me?"

To answer this, I had to "focus" a bit more by coming up with the average speed I have driven over 34 years of driving. Not possible, you say? No way you can be accurate, you say? Well, you're probably right, but, with the combination of highway and city driving, and stops and starts, I'll bet that number runs right around 33.

OK, so we have miles (310,250) and MPH (33). Some easy math tells me I have actually driven for 9,410 hours, which is 392 days, or 1 year and 1 month.

So what?

OK, assuming I fall down dead at 72, and that I drive up until that day, I will have put in a total of 829 days, or 2 years and about 3 months, on the road.

Still saying so what?

OK, let's turn the numbers around. Let's say that by the time I am 72 I will have driven, according to the assumptions above, 829 days, or 19,896 hours. That would put me at 1,193,760 minutes behind the wheel.

OK, you say, it's a big number, but what in the world are you trying to say?

Try this. Sit there and time yourself not doing anything for 1 minute.

Did you do it? Seemed like a long time didn't it. Were you fidgeting around in your seat for the last 15 seconds?

Now try 5 minutes.

Wow! That really seemed like a long time!!

OK, this time, let's try 1,193,760 minutes.

How many things, like driving to the store, do we do that eat up our precious time? When I go to heaven, I sincerely hope I am not judged by the time I have wasted v. quality time I have spent with the Lord, and time I have spent honoring and worshiping Him and doing His work.

Don't go and sell your car. Just think about time you may be wasting now that you can trade in for time that is not wasted.