There are studies that prove 10,000 hours of practice in a particular field makes you a master of it. Malcolm Gladwell published a book explaining the reasoning behind it.
If you spend 20 hours a week on a task, it would take you about 10 years to reach the 10,000 hour mark, then you’d technically be a master at it.
The gap between the good and great is the time put in and their surroundings. Family, culture and friendships make an impact and also have an effect on the outcome.
People in the states usually work about 40 hours a week. Basically, it takes around 5 years to become a master at that particular job. Kids playing sports or learning skills, the passion and investment make a difference, but they usually become a master by the time they’re a teen if they absolutely love it.
Last week we got to listen to Tom Davis who taught us life skills and leadership techniques. He mentioned this concept and explained how it makes a difference in our lives. My mind kind of went on a tangent and I realized that if we spent 10,000 with Jesus or in the bible, we’d technically be a master at it. If I spent 40 hours a week studying scripture, I’d be a master in about 5 years. Yet, spending 40 hours a week reading the bible seems crazy to me. But why?
My mind could accept the concept of working 40 hours a week, but I couldn’t grasp the idea of spending an intentional 40 hours with Jesus. It kind of irritated me and I sat on it for a while.
Why can I swallow the idea of working that much, but I couldn’t swallow the idea of spending that much time in the word?
Then my mind went to the idea of, “Well you get paid to work and we all need money.” But then, “You get more of a return when you spend that time with Jesus.” So why is it more acceptable to work that much??
Our culture is always busy. We want things and we want them now. We want money, we want food, we want comfort and we want it in our hands right this second. Jesus’ timing isn’t always like that. It takes effort and patience, and isn’t always tangible. It makes us submit and do His will and not our own. It takes us giving up our own needs and getting out of our comfort zone for where He wants to take us. Our culture says we need to work and puts an emphasis on that, but it doesn’t encourage us to read the bible more or grow in intimacy with the Lord. Obviously, look at our world we live in.
Imagine if everyone spent 40 hours a week in the Word. Imagine if people surrounded themselves with positive influences and Jesus following people. Imagine if God was our first priority instead of comfort or ourselves. Imagine if we lived in a world where people were masters of the Word and God.
Holy crap would that be beautiful.
We’ve become masters of almost everything but scripture and Jesus, and we almost rather master anything else besides this.
If we gave Jesus a whoppin hour a day, we’d become masters in a little more than 27 years. 2 hours a day would make us masters in about 13 years. That seems incredibly reasonably, but it takes effort and we worship the god of ease and comfort. But oh my, imagine how much those precious hours will impact your life.
I guarantee you, those hours will give you more return than any hour spent towards watching tv, scrolling through Facebook, or taking selfies to post on Instagram.
Lets start becoming masters of the bible and investing in a life giving practice. Lets invest our time wisely and get a return that no one can take away. Lets spend time with God who is longing to spend time with us.
