What will you do with your 168 hours?

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“We all have 168 hours in a week and one life to live.”

I look at those words written by Jessica Turner at Ann Voskamp’s blog and I pause.

168 hours.

When you say a week, it sounds like a week – routine and packed with this, that and the other thing. But when you break it into hours?

An hour is the blink of an eye.

And there, the question looms in front of me as if I’d never considered how I was going to spend my time: What are you going to do with your hours? 

With this hour?

I look at the clock.

It’s 7:39.

What would change if I lived my life in hours? 

Just a couple months ago, a young dad at our church died from cancer. He was 34 and left behind a beautiful wife and two small boys. My sister-in-law lost one of her friends recently to a blood clot. He was in the prime of his life and nobody saw it coming.

We don’t have to look far to find stories like these.

And we all have our own timelines, our hours unknown.

Yet do we live like we realize that? Like time is precious and every day counts? Or do we keep doing what we’re doing, going from week to week, from goal to goal, from plan to plan, from stress to stress, forgetting to stop and think about the meaning of it all? Forgetting to consider the big questions? Questions like who am I? and what’s my purpose? and who can I love better? and what happens when I die

168 hours isn’t a lot.

But that’s the point.

Because when we look at our lives and the things we’re spending time on through the lens that we’re only here for a short while, a beautiful change starts to happen…

We loosen our grip on the sense of control (that we think we have). Our friends and family become a higher priority. We have more courage. We have less regrets. Our relationships deepen. Our life has more meaning. We worry less.

We love more. 

So does it really matter what we do with this week — these 168 hours ahead? 

Our hours make up our days that make up our months… that make up our life.

So, yes, it matters. One hour lived well can turn into two, then three… then 168 and more. A daily discipline, that one good choice, the courage to reach out, the willingness to be real, the sacrifice to serve others, that new skill learned, that one risk taken, the decision to love — these little things aren’t little at all. They accumulate, and they count.

Small surrenders add up to victory. Baby steps lead to open doors. And little changes build dreams. Click to tweet.

So what do you want to do in the next seven days?

What changes do you want to start making?

Who do you want to reach out to?

What big ideas and questions do you want to explore?

What will you do with the next 168 hours?

What will I?  :)

Links and short videos to explore big questions for your life:

If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived

7 Ways to Identify Your Calling

Knowing God (Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs. Find out why he loves God.)

Is God Real? (from a former atheist)

How to find your life’s purpose in 5 minutes (TEDx talk)