What Time Is It?

JOKE:

Man is at a payphone and accidentally calls a wrong 1-800 number… gets GOD.

After being apologetic about wasting God’s time with a wrong number, God says that’s OK, what we humans think is a long time is really almost nothing to him.

MAN: So let me get this right… 1000 of our years are like nothing more than a minute to you??

GOD: Well, yeas, I guess so.

MAN: How ‘bout money? Is it true that you really own the cattle on a thousand hills and that everything we could possibly ever own is really yours?

GOD: well, yes, that’s true too.

MAN: So a million dollars to you is like nothing more than a penny, huh?

GOD: That’s right.

MAN: Hey God, I got a favor to ask. Can I have a penny?

GOD: In a minute.

In Psalm 90:10, we read “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.”

Most we can hope for is 70 years… maybe 80 or so if we’re exceptionally strong in health.

Our full-life in God’s reckoning of eternity is like the morning fog… it’s gone pretty quick without a trace.

When we were little children age 10 seemed like very mature and 25 was ancient.  70…?  Wow that was FOREVER!

But what does 70 years give us… what value does it have?

Depends on what we put into it.

Let’s put it into perspective:

24 hours /day x 365 days/year = 8760 hours in a year.    (525,000 min/yr OR 31,536,000 sec/yr)

AVERAGE AMERICAN REPORTEDLY:

SLEEPS

7 hours/day x 7 days/ week x 52 wk/yr x 70 yr = 178, 360 hours of sleep in your life.

Divide it by the number of hours in a year (8760) and that means you sleep about 20 years of a 70 year lifespan.

————————–70 – 20 = 50————————————–

WORKS

8 hours/day x 5 days/wk x 52 wk/yr x 70 yr = 145,600 hours of work = 17 years of work

————————–50 – 17 = 33————————————–

EATS

Assuming an hour for every meal (that’ll count your snacks)

3 meals a day X 7 days a week X 52 weeks X 70 years = 76,440 hours of eating = almost 9 years of eating

—————————33 – 9 = 24————————————–

WATCHING TELEVISION

3 hours a day X 7 days a week X 52 weeks X 70 years = 76,440 hours of watching TV = almost 9 years of watching TV

—————————24– 9 = 15————————————–

GOING TO CHURCH

Bit of a problem here…. The average American DOESN’T ATTEND at all…. So for the average American it boils down to ZERO hours a year

But, for OUR benefit… We’ll assume the Average American Church going Christian for our calculations.

Assuming an hour and a half each week, giving you time to get in here and get out plus the normal hour and fifteen minutes we usually set aside for the worship service, that’s 1.5 hours per week.

1.5 hours per week X 52 weeks X 70 years = 5460 hours in worship in your lifetime = about 6/10 of a year spent worshipping God.

NOW…

You may say: ‘That’s not fair, preacher… I go to church more often than that, I’m a really committed Christian!’

OK…

Then let’s add your attendance at EVERY Sunday morning worship service, PLUS EVERY Sunday School Class, PLUS EVERY Prayer Meeting scheduled, PLUS EVERY Bible Study that takes place, and we can bump your weekly Church worship time up to 5 hours in a week.

5 hours per week X 52 weeks X 70 years = 18,200 hours in worship in your lifetime = about 2 years spent worshipping God.

—————————15– 2 = 13————————————–

ADD to those numbers the results of a Survey of 6000 people polled in 1988, reported by U.S. News and World Report:

In a lifetime the average American will spend:

– Six months sitting at stoplights

– Eight months opening junk mail

– One year looking for misplaced objects

– 2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls

– 4 years doing housework

– 5 years waiting in line

Reader’s Digest takes it even further and says that the Average American will spend 6 years looking for misplaced stuff.

OH GOD…

Teach us to number our days……..

As we look back over the past and realize how our little uses of time add up to YEARS throughout the course of a lifetime, we need to ask God to help us number our days… to make the most of our time.

As we start a new year, let’s pause a moment and reflect on WHOM do we spend our time? Who is our god? The one we give our time and attention to?

OH GOD…

Teach us to number our days…