Measuring Your Time with Jelly Beans

A man takes boxes of jelly beans and pours them on the floor.  He then goes on to illustrate that each jelly bean represents a day in a person’s life. (http://omeleto.com/193535/) Using an average lifetime of 77.76 years he pours out 28,385 jelly beans.  Next he forms piles according to how the average person’s time will be spent.  We see the following breakdown:

• The first 15 formative years take up 5470 beans. 
• Sleep—8447 days
• Eating, drinking preparing food—1,635 days
• Work—3202 days
• Commuting to and from work—1099 days
• Watching television—2676 days
• Household chores and shopping—1576 days
• Caring for the needs of family/friends—564 days
• Bathing, grooming, bathroom time—671 days
• Community Activities, religious, civic duties—720
• The remaining 2325 beans represent our discretionary time. 

Meditation
Colossians 4:5—Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.
 
When Jesus came to earth, He modeled for His followers that His life was to be lived in accordance with God’s will.  Every day Jesus spent investing in His Father’s Kingdom.  When He left He implored those He taught to travel throughout the world and make disciples—“teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Understanding this command, the Apostle Paul wrote to Christians in the city of Colossae to orient or maximize their time wisely such that they could model the gospel message to those without salvation.    That same encouragement applies to us! 

​How’s your time spent?  Are you motivated to make each day count for the glory of God? Are you passionate about wisely using your available hours to reveal the good news of eternal life to those in darkness? Letting our light shine requires conscious investment of time—devoted to our Savior, dedicated towards eternal investments and determined by selflessness.  Let’s make our piles count!   
 
Inspiration
How we invest our free time is a more accurate and candid indicator of the sincerity of our faith than anything we might say.—R. Roderick Cyr in Difficult is the Path
 
©2015 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box. Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)