A conversation with a friend recently reminded me about how sometimes Time=Money and sometimes it doesn't.
Actually, most times time doesn't equal money. Get involved in creative work and it is hard to see that time equals money. I mean, how long does it take to write an excellent song or craft a readable book? What about the value of time when you are changing dirty nappies or cleaning up vomit? When you're comforting a friend or catching up on the phone?
Even in a job where time does equal money it doesn't always work. When I worked as an Occupational Therapist in rural Queensland I was an employee of Queensland Health. They paid me a rate per hour. But each hour I spent on the job wasn't equal. Some clients came to see me at the hospital where I was based, for others I travelled two hours each way to go and see. I hope they were thankful that the government picked up the tab. I had to try not to think of the financial side of things. The client who lived two hours away was just as important as the one who lived down the street.
Motherhood and parenting in general are difficult to measure in the time=money formula. But so is Christian work. I'm sure that more than one church has tried to do it. Not sure how successful it can be. Prayer, sermon preparation, evangelism, visitation etc. Who can put a price?
To put it more personally, we ourselves are doing work where it is impossible to put a money value on our time. We've travelled and stayed overnight to do a meeting for 12 people. Done a very similar thing in a different place and reached 100 people. Just the other day I drove nearly two hours to a prayer meeting for five people, none of whom financially support us, but all of whom pray diligently for us and Japan. Actually it is detrimental if we think in monetary terms. Thoughts like, "Will this meeting generate financial support?" puts a lot of pressure on you to perform. And takes your eyes off God and what He might be doing in the hearts of people, something you cannot put a money value on. Instead we put our financial needs before our heavenly Father and then try to get on with our work. And trust that God has prepared the way before us.
31 October, 2009
Time is money or is it?
A conversation with a friend recently reminded me about how sometimes Time=Money and sometimes it doesn't.
Actually, most times time doesn't equal money. Get involved in creative work and it is hard to see that time equals money. I mean, how long does it take to write an excellent song or craft a readable book? What about the value of time when you are changing dirty nappies or cleaning up vomit? When you're comforting a friend or catching up on the phone?
Even in a job where time does equal money it doesn't always work. When I worked as an Occupational Therapist in rural Queensland I was an employee of Queensland Health. They paid me a rate per hour. But each hour I spent on the job wasn't equal. Some clients came to see me at the hospital where I was based, for others I travelled two hours each way to go and see. I hope they were thankful that the government picked up the tab. I had to try not to think of the financial side of things. The client who lived two hours away was just as important as the one who lived down the street.
Motherhood and parenting in general are difficult to measure in the time=money formula. But so is Christian work. I'm sure that more than one church has tried to do it. Not sure how successful it can be. Prayer, sermon preparation, evangelism, visitation etc. Who can put a price?
To put it more personally, we ourselves are doing work where it is impossible to put a money value on our time. We've travelled and stayed overnight to do a meeting for 12 people. Done a very similar thing in a different place and reached 100 people. Just the other day I drove nearly two hours to a prayer meeting for five people, none of whom financially support us, but all of whom pray diligently for us and Japan. Actually it is detrimental if we think in monetary terms. Thoughts like, "Will this meeting generate financial support?" puts a lot of pressure on you to perform. And takes your eyes off God and what He might be doing in the hearts of people, something you cannot put a money value on. Instead we put our financial needs before our heavenly Father and then try to get on with our work. And trust that God has prepared the way before us.
I find that usually when people say "time = money" they are saying this because they are explaining why they're not going to do some activity. ("Oh, yes...of course, it would be nice to do that, but time is money, you know...")
ReplyDeleteIt pre-supposes that
a. money is the most important thing
b. if you spend time in the pursuit of money, you're going to get it!