10 hours and 10 days

No time for wasted time...

How I steward my time on a typical week.

I recently calculated how many hours there are in a week; there are 168 hours in a week. I then calculated how I spend those hours:-

• 56 hours – sleep (based on 8 hours a day)
• 40 hours – work (not including overtime)
• 10 hours – commute to work
• 04 hours – church and serving on a Sunday
• 07 hours – reading the bible, hearing from God, journaling and praying it through
• 04 hours – small group community for bible study, edifying, building and praying for one another
• 16 hours – Sabbath (based on a full day of resting)
• 07 hours – general grooming, showering, washing, moisturizing, make-up on, make-up off, (based on 1 hour a day)
• 14 hours – eating and preparing food or dining out (based on 2 hours a day average)

So that totals up to 158 hours a week that I can account for, which leaves me 10 hours to socialize, do any other ministry work I’m involved with. Usually, the time I end up sacrificing the most at my own peril, is my sleep, sabbath and eating habits.

10 hours and 10 days

My life as a single person is so jammed pack, the 10 hours I get of unaccountable time a week is so precious, that’s the time I can use for socializing, ministry, or any other work I need to do. 10 hours is nearly a full days work for me, 10 precious hours.

I get 10 days paid vacation a year with my job. 10 precious days. This year, in the spirit of wanting to use that time, whilst I’m still young and able to run hard, I wanted to distribute my vacation to one day a week over a 10 week period, to serve at my church office and devote more time towards some of the general housekeeping and development of this church plant. Those 10 days are precious.

Looking at my time

Time is precious to me, because once you’ve lost it, unlike money or possessions, you can’t get it back. I know the Lord has ways of redeeming time and has His own miraculous ways of making us more productive in our work, but my time here on this earth is limited. I will die, and I will be accountable to the Lord on how I’ve used and stewarded my time he’s given me, in the same way I will be accountable with my money and energy. If I spend my time one trashy movies or hours on end on facebook or iPhone games, that’s time I’ve lost that is useless and wasted. I only have 10 hours to spare in a week… When I waste too much time in one area I lose time in another, and I sacrifice something that’s important, like my sleep and therefore my ability to wake up and spend time with God, my ability to do well at work in a God glorifying way, I sacrifice on my eating habits, and therefore my health, I sacrifice on my Sabbath and therefore again my relationship with the Lord and my ability to do ministry.

Punctuality (side rant)

If there is one thing I get antsy about is punctuality. I get frustrated if people are late and if they force people to wait idly. Wasting other people’s time is a horrible and disrespectful thing to do. Excuse my rant.

What I need to do

I need to be more loving to those when they’re late and lovingly reproach those who are consistently late instead of grumbling. I also need to steward my time a lot better knowing that I am limited and dependent, unlike my God. I need to be aware that if I don’t steward my time well, the immediate things I then sacrifice are my sleep, my sabbath and my health… The Lord really showed me this week how I am a finite and dependent creation that needs sleep and rest and good food. Today Islept for 12 hours… it was glorious and needed for my burnt out body.