I’m down in Virginia Beach for my week on campus for my Spiritual Formation class at Regent. We were discussing solitude today and my professor mentioned that spiritual director Chet Michael tells people that to be in right relationship with God (or something like that), they should give God:
- 1 hour each day
- 1 day each month
- 1 week each year
That struck me as a really good rule of thumb. At first glance it doesn’t seem like that much, but once I think about it I realize that fitting that into my schedule would be pretty tough. I’ve tried a one-hour quiet time lately and liked it, but it’s hard to fit that much time in every day. Given how much difficulty Heather and I have in scheduling a single evening each month for a date night, scheduling an entire day with God would be even more difficult. And a week each year looks a lot less appealing once you deduct those five days from your vacation day balance at work.
However, if my math is correct, that comes out to 821 hours per year (not accounting for overlap, so actually it’s a bit less), which is just under 10% (a full tithe) of our time. Doesn’t God deserve at LEAST that much time with us?
A related analogy from class: sociologists say that one key to having a healthy family is to eat supper together. Quiet times are suppertime with Jesus.
This is a great post and a huge challenge. I just finished transcripts of Andy Stanley’s message on the Sinai Code where he explores all of God’s Commandents. The message was powerful but specifically relative to your comments is the part on the 4th commandment…’Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy’. When we choose to take one day (24 hours) off we are completely trusting in God’s provision and having faith that he can do in 6 days what we think requires 7. While I was not thrilled with this idea when I initially read it…I have prayed about it and see how much my faith can grow if I am willing to strech in this area. Remember the Isrealites tried to find ways around this by sending their servants outside the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath to do work they wanted done so that ‘they’ weren’t personally violating the law. Every Sunday I head over to Ballston and I am reminded that trusting God by resting and remembering the Sabbath really works…it’s called Chick-Filet and every Sunday they are closed while hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue walk by…BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL and he can do in 6 days what we insistent takes 7.
Thanks for the reminder…
David
March 6th, 2008
David- great thoughts. It’s definitely something I struggle with as well. For many of us, I think it’s easy to believe God can do more with 90% of our finances than we can do with 100%. But that trust doesn’t always seem to extend to our time. Like you said, he can do more with 6 days of our time than we can with 7. It’s definitely a discipline, but it teaches us about the faithfulness of God and gives us the rest we so desperately need if we are humble enough to recognize it.
Heather Z
March 6th, 2008