What would you do if you had an extra two hours per day? What if you had an extra day a week with no extra responsibilities? No new burdens... no extra work... just an extra day. What if you had an extra month a year? What if you had two months? A month or two of vacation from work, household chores, other responsibilities... a guilt free 30-60 days to do whatever you wanted?
What would you do?
- Spend more time with your family...
- Finish your basement...
- Start a new ministry...
- Read some books you've always wanted to read...
- Garden...
- Learn a craft...
- Get caught up for the first time in your life...
- Learn to play a musical instrument...
- Take some online classes...
- Write a book...
- Exercise...
- Learn to paint...
- Go cycling...
- Volunteer...
- Get a Bible degree...
- Build a deck on your house...
- Learn a new language...
It wouldn't be hard to come up with a pretty good list. What would be on your list? I know the three or four things that would be on my list. Wow. What I wouldn't give to be able to do those things... to have the TIME to do those things!
So, think about this. Don't judge your appetite for something like this just yet, just do the math. This may not be for you and I'm not even suggesting it. I just want you to go through the computations that I went through while driving back from Columbus yesterday.
How many hours a week do you spend watching television? Really? Most people underestimate this number so think it through. You're not telling anyone your number, so be honest. How many hours on a typical Sunday? Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? Thursday? Friday? Saturday? Add the days together.
Hang in there. I'm not saying television is a bad thing or you are bad if your number is high. I just want you to do the comparison that I did yesterday.
I'm not a big television person, but when I thought about it, my number was higher than I expected.
O.K. Now let's do some more math. There are 24 hours in a day. Subtract the number of hours you are in bed each day. Now subtract the time you spend getting ready in the morning. Make sure you include everything in your morning routine (shower, shave, make-up, quiet time, devotions, morning newspaper, snooze time, the time you spend sitting with a blank stare trying to get going, etc.). What is that number? Now subtract the time you spend on a typical day preparing and eating meals. I know this varies from day to day, but get a good average. Now subtract that number from the last number. Are you lost yet? Our formula is: 24 - (time in bed) - (morning routine) - (preparing and eating meals).
Whatever that number is, it reflects the number of 'available' hours you have in a day. I'll tell you my number. It is 13. Some things are pretty standard in my life. Everyday I have 24 hours. Everyday I sleep. Everyday I have my morning routine. Everyday I prepare and eat meals. After all of that, I have 13 hours a day to work, serve, spend time with family, enjoy entertainment, and so on. If God made the days two hours longer, I would still only have 11 hours of sleep, morning routine, and meals. Everything else is somewhat discretionary.
Now compare the number of 'daily available hours' to the number of hours per week you watch television. Now, I'm not saying watching TV is bad, just stick with me.
For almost everyone, the number of TV hours per week approaches the number of available hours per day. (And for many people the number of TV hours per week is twice the number of available hours per day.) If your two numbers are nearly the same, then you are spending one whole day a week watching television. If your two numbers are nearly the same, then you are spending over 50 full days a year watching TV. (That is seven weeks... almost two months.) If your TV hours per week is more than your available hours per day, then you are spending much more then one day a week with the TV and much more than two months a year channel surfing.
Is watching TV that much a bad thing? Maybe so, maybe not. That isn't my point.
Why do we watch so much television? Entertainment? Relaxation? Information?
I enjoy watching what I watch; it does relax me sometimes; and I love learning new things watching the History Channel and Fox News.
But here is the question... This is the question that has dominated my thoughts the last couple of days... This is the question that only you can answer for you...
Am I getting more satisfaction from watching television a day a week and almost two months a year than I would get if I could actually accomplish the three or four things I would do if I had an extra day a week and an extra couple months a year?
Don't get me wrong. I love to sit with my wife and watch a movie or a crime drama. I actually enjoy listening to the talking heads on the news. As strange as it sounds I got lost this week watching Modern Marvels on the History channel as they spent a whole hour on the science of pigs.
But when I think of the things I have a heart and passion to do in my life that have gone undone because I don't have the time, I wonder if I'm getting the short end of the stick.
Maybe not. Maybe TV is such an important part of my life, maybe it is so wonderful, that it is better than the three or four things I thought I might do if I had more time.
I have got to know!
I can't continue to sacrifice some of my hopes and dreams so I can sit in front of the TV a few more hours until I know TV is really better than my dreams!
What if we took a month or two and just let the TV go. I don't mean we get legalistic about it and not let others in our families watch, or refuse to occasionally turn it on to see a special news story, or refuse sit down once every few weeks to watch a movie with our husband or wife. But what if, as a general rule, we just didn't watch TV for a while and spent all of those extra hours working on something we are passionate about. I wonder what would happen? I wonder what we would accomplish? I wonder what we would learn?
What do we have to lose? We can always turn the TV back on if it turns out that CSI and SURVIVOR are better than real life.
Something to think about.
Pastor Noel
