Killing time

Sweet! I figured out how to put in a title. I'm growing.

So I subscribe to Time magazine. I do so mostly to sound well read and relevant when I say, "So I was reading Time this week and....." The fact is I usually only read the sections that highlight jokes from last week's late night shows as well as the celebrity section in the back. However, this week (actually last week, I have been a little late in writing - sorry) the magazine took a look at "America at 300,000,000".

It talked about how we vote, what we buy (we bought 536,000 Domino's pizzas last year! That's almost 4.3 million slices - for only $5.99 on Tuesdays!), what we earn (it takes Howard Stern 24 seconds to earn $1000 and a janitor 1o3 hours to do the same - something is wrong with the world) among several other areas.

There was one section that I found most interesting. It has to do with how we spend our time. Now this topic has always struck a chord with me because somewhere along the line, I became very aware of the concept of time and how precious it is, how quickly it seems to go by and how much of it I waste.

Here are some stats that they give (and I am using round average numbers to give you a general idea - they broke up the groups into male/female, married/single, people who had time to do this stupid survey/those that actually had lives), we spend approximately 9.5 hours every day sleeping and doing "personal care" (showering, brushing teeth, etc.). We spend about 8 hours a day at work. We spend about 3 hours a day watching TV. We spend about 25 minutes a day reading.

I did a lesson at youth group last year about this same topic. In doing research, I found that the average life expectancy is 72 years. So if you take the numbers from above and determine what percentage of a 24 hour period that consume and transpose them over the course of a lifetime, you come up with some incredible numbers. I know I may sound smart using words like "transpose" but you can figure this stuff out too. (watch t.v. for 3 hours - 3 hours out of 24 - that's, um - quick typing on the calculator, 12.5%) It's simple math. Take it from a guy who was told to never take math again after 11th grade by his math teacher - oh and I never did. Take THAT Mr. Musselman! Sorry, repressed anger is buried again - onto the incredible numbers:

We will spend 28.7 years sleeping and brushing our teeth (sweet, I just woke up and my breath is fresh!)
We will spend just under 24 years working - I know that you don't work your whole life but think of it this way - if you work from age 20 to 65 - 45 years - at that same percentage, you will spend just about 15 full years at work.
We will spend 9 years watching T.V. Of course 7.5 of those years we will be watching stupid commercials that feature a talking British lizard. Freaking Geico....
We will spend just about one year reading.

For me, those numbers are, well, incredible. Obviously, we need to sleep but if we average 8 hours of sleep a day over a lifetime - that's a third of our lives! That means that I slept through more than a full year of college (hopefully, it was my sophomore year - yikes - wish I had that one back). Based on Time's breakdown, we spend about the same amount of time doing sports/recreation/exercise as well as "thinking/relaxing" as we do reading. That would mean that we will spend THREE TIMES as much time watching T.V. as we will playing sports, reading or just stopping to think COMBINED.

People, God put us on this Earth to enjoy Him and his creation. We are here to interact with each other. As you can see, most our lives are not designed to do that. I'm not saying quit your job, become an insomniac and throw out your T.V. (though that plan worked out for Thomas Edison.....) but I just challenge all of you to be intentional about each day. I know I sound like an afterschool special but seriously - watch one less T.V. show and find something else to do with that hour. Read the paper. Hit some golf balls. Start a blog!

Well, that's all I have for now. Sorry if I came across preachy, this article just really hit me. If you want to read the article, it is from the October 30th issue. Or if you click on the title of the blog, it will take you to the article online.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see what's on T.V.