So there’s all these theories about how many years a human year is as compared to dog years. It’s kinda funny to google, in fact. One article says that the “7 years to 1” theory is terribly incorrect. I heard John Tesh say that the first 2 years are actually 5 and then the rest are 7; and I heard it depends on weight. But I don’t really care, really.
This is about time. Time spent. With your dog. And with your God. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just use the 7 year to 1 year ratio.
If there’s 7 years in 1 year, that means with 52 weeks in a year, every 7.43 weeks is a year for a dog.
That’s a new year every 53 days.
Since we have 12 months in a year, every 4.42 days is a month for a dog.
In those 106 human hours that equal a dog’s month, when you divide it by the average 30 day month, you discover that every 3.5 hours is a dog’s day!
No wonder why they sleep so much. And no wonder why they are so excited to see you after you come home from being out all day. It’s like you’ve left them for 2-3 days!
Now I say this not to be guilty. In fact, if you spend just 5 minutes with your dog, it’s like spending a half hour with the canine. Pretty impressive. If you go for a job with the pup for 15 minutes, it just ran over an hour and a half! So there, you’re guilt is removed. You’re welcome.
I won’t mention that when you leave for a week it’s like leaving for almost two months. Then you’d really feel guilty.
Okay, okay, I know this is seemingly useless information. I had one of those desk blotters in high school and hand an entrepreneurial idea to market this in a vet office or pet store in some way. But as I like to infuse Scripture, I think I’d rather discuss our time with God.
God years, if you will.
With 1440 minutes in a day, if we spend 5 minutes reading our Bible and praying, it’s giving God 0.34% of our day. Not even one percent! You might say, yeah, but I sleep 8 of those hours. Okay, you’re then awake for 960 minutes. Those five minutes with God are still only 0.52%. Still not even one percent! Wow.
Scripture talks about tithing and many Christians and churches are real big into that. We like a guideline – we would rather just be told what/how much to do instead of figure it out on our own (% to give, how fast can I drive, how many times do I have to go to church, how much beer can I drink, how “far” can I go with my significant other before marriage, etc.). Now I like and don’t like the tithe mandate. I like much better the concept of first fruits (see my Nov. ’10 sermon on that), but it’s nice to have a point to say, 10%. If we were to give God 10% of our day, it’d be 144 minutes or 2.4 hours (96 min or 1.6 hours with those 8 hours of sleep). The reason I don’t like the tithe figure is that it can be overwhelming. Especially when you throw out these numbers. Giving 10% of money seems like nothin’ than the time!
Now time is not something God lives by. He’s outside of time – He’s eternal. Time doesn’t matter all that much to Him.
I love Psalm 90:4, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” It’s true – God’s time is so much bigger than ours. One day in His sight is so minuscule that we can’t even measure it on the most detailed one-foot ruler! YET – He sees us every second of every day and cares for us each moment we live.
Time is something we live by. And for as much as we get all caught up in the minuscule things of life, it’s only for a moment. That interview you have – it’s a blink. The confrontation – a mere fraction of a second. The recovery you know you’ll need to endure after the procedure – the difference between first and second in the 100 meter dash.
We have the privilege of loving our dogs for a short amount of time and it seeming longer than it is to them. But even greater still, we have the opportunity to serve a God forever in the time and place and space on earth here and now that is a mere breath compared to the joy and painlessness and beauty that is forever. And we ought to slow down and breath and enjoy both His creation and the opportunity to serve. Some things we have to do because we have to (see Genesis 3), but so much more is opportunity – to experience pain, to have challenges, to med relationships, to heal and more. I want the balance, but moreso the obedience. The following faithfully after Jesus in the good and bad, easy and hard. I believe it’s doable. I hope expectantly so. And hope with certainty it will be eternally.