07/16/2024
A pastor friend of mine recently introduced me to Blinklist. For all of us with busy schedules but who want to consume as many books and podcasts as possible, I thought this was going to rock my world! Who wouldn’t want to have key ideas from top books, podcasts, and experts in only 15 minutes?
Think about it. In 15 minutes you can get the gist of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, or John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, or St. Augustine’s Confessions. I read those three books recently, and I guarantee I spent a whole lot more than 15 minutes on each one.
We live in a microwave culture of instant gratification. And for some reason, 15-minute intervals seem to be pretty popular: 15 minutes every day to understand the Bible, 15 minutes a day to learn a new language, and 15 minutes to acquire the key ideas for top books, podcasts, and experts.
Unfortunately, however, there is no Blinklist for the soul. Soul care and spiritual growth take … time. Most things of deep, abiding value in life do as well. A healthy marriage takes time. Flourishing relationships take time. Developing a skill, learning a language, raising children all take time. We can’t microwave our way to becoming a better, healthier, and deeper human being.
In all of the above examples, time represents both duration and quantity—growth comes over a long time when we invest a lot of time. The amount of time we commit over a lifetime leads to long-term growth. As the old saying goes, “The more you put in, the more you will get out.”
This directly applies to our relationship with Jesus. How long someone has been following Jesus is an indicator of spiritual maturity, but, as John Mark Comer points out, “so is how much time they give to Jesus in their daily life” (Practicing the Way, 112).
One of the great obstacles for spiritual growth, of course, is, “I’m too busy.” But are we…really? The truth of the matter is that most of us waste copious amounts of time. Comer goes on to say, “The average millennial is on their phone nearly four hours a day; most adults ages thirty-five to forty-four watch two to three hours of TV a day. Combined, that’s almost a full-time job. Think of what we could do with even a tithe of that time” (idem.).
What’s the solution? Invest your time over a long time to see long-term growth. “The key to becoming a saint is to keep walking behind Jesus for the long haul” (idem.). I love the old saying, “A black belt is just a white belt who never quit.”
My prayer for you is that you will commit to it, stick with it, and grow through it. Whatever challenges you face with your investment of time, consider how you can achieve a greater R.O.I. (return on investment). One way is to apprentice to Jesus by developing “a long obedience in the same direction” (Peterson). And all God’s people said? “Amen.”
