Monday, November 19, 2007

Working 5 to 8

We are so often concerned with our work and what we do from 8 to 5. I suppose we should be way more concerned about what we do from 5 to 8... at night. This is especially true for me. Those three hours are really precious in the grand scheme of my life. Those 180 minutes are the time after work when my kids are home and awake. Those are the moments we spend around the dinner table, readying lunches for the next day, baths, and just general getting ready for bed activities.

Yet, there is so much that I allow to vy for that time. Work that must get done before tomorrow, phone calls that I've put off until the end of the day, or worse yet, a little time watching Mike Rowe investigate yet another of America's "Dirty Jobs".


I attended a talk by Wayne Cordeiro this past summer. He was talking about how we spend our time. But Cordeiro shared some thoughts gave me some significant insight.

He said that:
  • 80% of what I do anybody can do.

  • 15% of what I do anybody with training can do.

  • and only 5% of what I do only I can do.

WHAT? I guess it's true that anybody can sleep, eat, drive, answer the phone, etc. And anybody can be trained to do the work I do. And it's even more true that only I can be a husband to my wife, a father to my children, only I can grow in Christ (I can't delegate that one), only I can discover and use my spiritual gifts, and only I can encourage myself in the Lord (as David did) and present an inspired me to the world, my family and to God.

How I invest those 72 minutes (5% of 24 hours) a day is of utmost importance to these incredible people and to my spiritual growth. This thought is extremely challenging but it is also clarifying. It just makes the real priority really clear.

I guess Jesus said it best when He said to "seek first the kingdom of God (His ways and His purposes) and His righteousness then all these things (the 95%) will be added."

How might we change the way we think about the 72-180 minutes that we invest from 5 -8? What are your thoughts?

More on this later,

VAN


1 comment:

susanna said...

It's so true, Van. It hard to aspire to focusing on the family during that after dinner time but it is so important! Thanks for the reminder