Wasted Time or Purposeful Time?

I hate commuting to work. I know I’m not alone in this when I say that I hate traffic. We definitely don’t live in a huge city but it’s not small by any means. Over the years traffic has progressively gotten worse and worse. I’ve often thought that the person who creates a machine for teleportation will be the richest person alive.  You know, a machine that instantly zaps you where you want to go?  Won’t that be the best invention in the history of time?  Maybe not, but it probably seems like it would be to someone who has been sitting in traffic, stuck on the interstate for 30 minutes or more.

To be honest, there probably will come a day when that invention actually does exist.  I’m sure some of us can’t wait for that day to happen.  But if we really think about it, will something like that necessarily be a great invention?

We often think of time in our cars as wasted or useless time.  We view our driving time as time that we could be spending doing other things.  If we didn’t have to drive places, we could have more time at home or at work, or what ever the case may be.

Sure we might be more productive in those places, but think about the things that we will miss without that so called “wasted” time in our car.  When I’m driving alone, this is often the only time that I ever really listen to music.  Well, it’s the time I listen to music that is not geared toward children! Because I listen to Christian music, I’m filling my head with the word of God, singing about how great He is and worshiping him.  Maybe you do the same.  Or maybe …

• You’re listening to a book on tape. 
• You are running through your daily to-do list in your head and organizing your thoughts.
• You’re driving your kids to school and this is the one time when they’re trapped in the same small area as you so you’re able to have meaningful conversations.
• You are listening to a podcast about a topic that interests you.
• You are talking to out of town family members on the phone because you finally have a little peace and quiet to make phone calls to other people.

I was reminded this week of just how special that car time can be when I drove Kate to school early one morning. She’s getting to the age where she is starting to understand and think through some of the things that she has been learning about since she was born. On the drive to school, she started asking me questions about Jesus and I was so thankful to get to share with her and talk to her one-on-one. Sure we could have had that conversation another time, but it was on her heart then and this is one of the rare moments in our week when she and I are alone together.

We live in an instant world. We live in a place where we expect everything immediately. But sometimes we need to thank God for the traffic, the times when we are forced to slow down and prepare for our day, organize our thoughts, talk to our kids or maybe just listen to Him.