Jesus asked in Matthew 6, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Of course, the answer is no. But you can add a single hour to your life if you live in a region that observes Daylight Savings Time and it’s time to “fall back.” While an extra hour of sleep is always needed, maybe this year you use that extra hour to get to something you’ve been wanting to do “when you have time.” Well, now is the time.
Six one-hour ideas:
- Read a Gospel
Average reading speed for comprehension is 200-400 words per minute. Choosing the middle of that range, 300, you can read each gospel in the times shown below:
Matthew: 61 minutes (perfect)
Mark: 37 minutes (you can read Mark twice)
Luke: 65 minutes (so what if you go a little long
John: 52 minutes (even a little time left to meditate)
Granted, this isn’t meditative Scripture engagement, but it’s an opportunity to experience an important chunk of Scripture in one setting. That’s a great way to spend an extra hour.
- Read the Book of Revelation…Aloud
Revelation 1:3 says “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy…” Reading it aloud (which would be at a slower pace of 160 words per minute, the usual audio book pace) will take you about 75 minutes. I’m thinking that by the time you get 60 minutes into Revelation that you won’t mind tacking on another 15. Remember, you’re “blessed” if you do this.
- Pray
We all want to pray more. So use this extra hour to jump-start your prayer life. You’ve probably seen the prayer pneumonic ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. This is a great framework for praying the way Scripture teaches us to pray. If you spend 15 minutes in each of the four segments, you’ll have an hour of prayer under your belt before you know it.
- Cease Striving
Spend one entire hour in unadulterated goof-off mode. No personal productivity. No work productivity. Your only task is to accomplish nothing. This may help you get to the heart of “Sabbath” more than anything else you’ve tried. You might recognize “cease striving” from the opening command in Psalm 46:10, which is followed by “and know that I am God” (NASB). So, if you were to add a task to your non-striving hour, knowing that God is God is a worthy task to add.
- Visit that Friend or Neighbor
You probably have a list of folks you’ve been meaning to reach out to: a new neighbor to meet, a dear friend who could use a hug or a meal, a family member who could use some encouragement. You’ve been thinking “as soon as I get a minute I’ll make the connection.” Now you have 60.
- Watch with Jesus One Hour
In Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts of Jesus praying in Gethsemane just prior to His arrest, Jesus chastised His disciples for not “keeping watch” with Him for one hour. He then exhorted them to “watch and pray” so that they would not fall to temptation. So, take Jesus up on this exhortation by spending an hour watching and praying with Him. Here are some ideas:
- Read through each gospel writer’s account of Jesus’ experience in Gethsemane: Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:40-46.
- Pray Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer. What issues do you have in your life that would benefit by your saying to God “…not as I will, but as you will”?
- “Watch” with Jesus as He accepts the cup He prayed might be removed. Read through each gospel writer’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion and death: Matthew 17; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19
Here’s a helpful tip. You don’t need to “claim” your hour just before bed. Fall back sometime during the late afternoon. At 4 p.m. turn your clock back to 3 p.m. and start one of the activities above. You’ll be surprised how quickly your extra hour will pass. And you may find yourself wanting to claim an hour on your own each day or week and not wanting to wait for that “extra” hour next fall.