Leisure and the Gospel: A Day in the Life of Zadok pt. II
So, we’ve already established that Zadok has about 291 days a year committed to fulfilling his commitments as an intercessory missionary. This alone, however, doesn’t really establish for us just how much he is actually working – since every hour of those days could be spent in a multitude of ways.
Let’s do the numbers on those 291 days.
291 x 24 hours in a day = 6984 potential ‘work hours’ a year
Of course, Zadok has to sleep and gets an average 8 hours a night. We’ll factor this into the number for rest at the end.
291 x 8 hours of sleep = 2328 sleep (rest)
That leaves us with 4656 potential waking hours for working. Zadok has been given grace by God to do the night watch – a lifestyle that suits his character as a contemplative and his predilections as a night owl – and he goes whole hog jumping into it for 6 hours each working day.
291 x 6 hours in the prayer room = 1746 hours in the prayer room
That brings him down to 2910 hours for the rest of his IHOP responsibilities and the mundane activities that make up the rest of life. A man of habit, he decides to clean IHOP four hours a day 6 days a week.
291 x 4 hours of service = 1164 hours in service
That brings him down to 1746 hours for personal household responsibilities. He’s a family man – and he’s consistent in helping his wife with the kids and the household chores for a solid 4 hours each day.
291 x 4 hours of 'family time' = 1164 hours of personal household labors
That leaves Zadok with 582 potential leisure hours a year – or about two hours every day. (And that’s for a workhorse who does a fourteen hour day six days a week.)
I’m not going to ask for a show of hands of people who regularly do a fourteen hour day.
If we add up those 582 hours with the hours spent sleeping – and factor them into our percentages – we get...
291 x 10 = 2910 hours of leisure in the average year
plus
73 days off x 24 hours = 1752 hours of leisure on days off
equals
4662 hours of leisure a year
divided by
8760 total hours in a year
equals
53% of hour time each year is spent in leisure, recreation or rest – with a fourteen hour work week six days a week (including sleep in leisure).
In a future post, we'll compare these numbers with the 'average American' ratios for work and leisure - though I'll tease you by letting you know that 'technically' we work more - but then, we haven't defined work OR leisure yet - which could certainly turn things on their head.
1 comment:
This is good. One of my biggest challenges is learning what "recreates" me - how should I spend those two hours of rest a day (or whatever the real number is) to truly enable me to pour myself out again in work? And then I think of the Apostle Paul. What's the deal with that guy? I can't imagine him taking any time to rest besides sleeping and even then, it's kind of hard to imagine him sleeping. He's kind of like Chuck Norris. Can you imagine Chuck Norris sleeping? But maybe that's just my deluded, romatic perception of Paul. But, my goodness, for some reason, I don't think one would have the grace to be stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, whipped, etc., and still be jealous for two hours a day of 'personal time'. I'm not complaining about people taking time for themselves (oh, how I'm not complaining), but how does 'personal time' or 'leisure time' factor in to one's life when they've been gripped by the Holy Spirit with a vision for Jesus' inheritance and return to the planet? What will our own lifestyles look like when the biggest revival/persecution to hit the planet comes? How does our pursuit of rest and leisure now affect us in that day? Maybe we just do what we do now, in our dull, blinded, lukewarm state, and when God pours out His spirit, we will just naturally change our outlook? Hmmmm...thoughts?
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