Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one day and underestimate what they could accomplish in a year. Do you realize that if you invested 15 minutes per day in reading, memorization, learning, or spiritual growth, that those 15 minutes per day would add up to 90 hours each year? If you listen to an audio Bible at normal speed and follow along in your printed copy, you could read all of the OT and the NT twice each year in 15 minutes per day. You may not be able to memorize much Scripture in 15 minutes. How much could you memorize in 90 hours? You may not be able to read much of Calvin’s Institutes in 15 minutes. How much could you read in 90 hours? (The audio version of The Institutes is 67 hours at regular speed, so if you listened and followed along in your printed copy at 1.5 speed, you could read all of the Institutes twice each year in only 15 minutes per day.)
Do you realize how little time 15 minutes actually is? Most people who schedule their time don’t even schedule tasks that small. It isn’t hard to find 15 minutes in the morning or at lunch or before bed. I make it a habit to always keep a book with me, and I finish many books each year just by reading in the “between time” each day. You could scroll through social media during those 15 minutes you spend in the waiting room, or you could read The Pilgrim’s Progress (which is only 12 hours at normal speed, and most of you will read it much faster).
I do not recommend that you devote only 15 minutes per day to productive reading, study, and growth. A. G. Sertillanges in The Intellectual Life counseled his readers to dedicate two hours per day to personal and spiritual development. That would be far more productive and desirable. But I mention the potential of 15 minutes of daily focus for two reasons. First, many people imagine they spend far more time reading, studying, and learning than they actually do. Second, if you do not already dedicate at least 15 minutes per day to reading, thinking, and growing Christianly, let me recommend that you begin to do so. It can, quite literally, change your life. --JME
