Stewardship of Time

The next time you find yourself rotting in bed or going through the motions of another boring day, think about your older self. This is what TikTok creator @sonyatrachsel does when she’s in a funk. She’ll have what she calls a “time traveling day,” and it’s an outlook that’s resonating on the app.

On a time traveling day, Sonya will pretend that her 80-year-old self gets to come back to this exact moment and relive it. “You have to get real with it,” she said. “Close your eyes, imagine yourself sitting in your mansion on a chair, and then poof — you’re here today.”

There are so many reasons why Sonya’s “time traveling” trend has struck a chord. For one, it might make you emotional to think about your older self getting the chance to come back to a younger body for a day, kind of like a second chance.

This is a really beautiful way to frame your thoughts, practice gratitude, and think about what you would do if you had youth on your side again. Would you ride a bike? Go for a walk? Learn something new? Would you linger longer in the park and stare at the flowers? Be more adventurous?

Even mundane moments, like waiting in line, can become more meaningful when you think about how excited your 80-year-old self would be to come back to do it all over again. “It just becomes part of the experience,” she said.

This sweet and thoughtful approach to living can help you notice and appreciate the little things around you, but it can also inspire you to do more, live more, and have more fun. So, get up, get out there, and give your 80-year-old self a story to tell.

In her comments, someone wrote, “You just changed my life.” Another said, “This is genius! Don’t take your youth for granted.” “Thank you,” one commenter wrote under the video. “When I read this, I got up out of bed so fast.”

Urban safety experts have long worried about the impact of distracted driving. However, a new study by researchers suggests we should be equally concerned about distracted walking.

Researchers have uncovered alarming differences in behavior between pedestrians engrossed in their mobile devices and those who remain alert to their surroundings. The study, conducted at two busy intersections in downtown Vancouver, used advanced video analysis techniques to examine the behavior of pedestrians and drivers during near-miss incidents.

Published in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention, the findings paint a concerning picture of how our smartphone addiction is affecting our safety on city streets. Distracted pedestrians, those using their phones for texting, reading, or listening to music, tend to walk slower and maintain closer proximity to vehicles compared to their non-distracted counterparts. They also rarely yield to oncoming traffic and are less likely to change their walking direction, even when dangerously close to vehicles. This behavior suggests a significant decrease in awareness of their surroundings and reduced navigational efficiency. This creates a perfect storm for potential accidents.

The next time you find yourself reaching for your phone while walking, remember: the digital world can wait. Your safety, and the safety of those around you, depends on staying present in the physical world.

Yet another study shows what should be obvious: teenagers need to spend time with dad. The study tracked over 200 families and found that time with both parents starts to decrease when kids reach the age of 15. But the University of Pennsylvania study also found that the time teens spend with their dads has critical benefits.

A CNN article stated, "The more time spent alone with their fathers, the higher their self-esteem; the more time with their dads in a group setting, the better their social skills." The article also said that time with mom helps too, but there's just something special about time with dad.

The researchers conjectured that one-on-one time with dad "may develop higher general self-worth [in teenagers] because their fathers go beyond social expectations to devote undivided attention to them."

The message is clear: dads can make a huge difference in their kids' lives.

In today’s digital age, entertainment is always at our fingertips. Whether it’s the endless scroll on TikTok or jumping from one YouTube video to another, the way we consume media has drastically changed in recent years. But is this content stream of entertainment really entertaining us? A new study finds that scrolling through videos online to cure your boredom can actually make you even more bored!

Researchers from the University of Toronto delved into the curious phenomenon where our attempts to avoid boredom by rapidly swiping through digital content might actually be making things worse. The findings reveal a counterintuitive outcome: the very behavior meant to stave off boredom — quickly moving through entertaining videos — ends up intensifying it.

Digital platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Netflix have revolutionized how we consume media. With just a swipe or a click, we can skip over content that doesn’t immediately capture our interest. This behavior, known as “digital switching,” is when users switch between different videos or fast-forward through parts of a video in search of something more stimulating. At first glance, this seems like an efficient way to maximize enjoyment and avoid dull moments. However, research suggests that this behavior might be doing the opposite of what we intend.

You might wonder why switching between content would make you more bored. After all, if you’re skipping the “boring” parts, shouldn’t that make the overall experience better?

When you engage deeply with a video, your attention is focused, and you’re more likely to find the content meaningful. However, when you constantly switch, your attention is fragmented. This fragmented attention doesn’t allow you to become fully absorbed in what you’re watching, leading to a feedback loop where you’re constantly seeking something better but never fully satisfied and therefore more bored.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Not only does endlessly swiping from one video to another lead to wasting time and boredom, it can also open the door to the temptation to view inappropriate content for an emotional high.

How's your fantasy team shaping up? A recent Statista article takes stock of the United States' growing fantasy sports phenomenon. ESPN, DraftKings, and Yahoo, have spearheaded the growth of the online market, with the overall number of fantasy sports platforms increasing to 651 in 2023.

Between 2015 and 2022, the number of fantasy sports players in the US grew steadily. As of 2022, the total number of US fantasy sports players reached 50.4 million who spent $9.48 billion US dollars.

All that money goes to a booming fantasy industry—filled with scouting reports, insider magazines, draft conventions, and even entire cable channels dedicated to the pastime. Think for a moment of the sheer magnitude of this collected time, energy, research, and money. Cumulatively, there are entire human lifetimes—incalculable hours and moments—and vast fortunes going toward a particularly abstract form of entertainment.

Stats like these are a powerful reminder that our lives are supposed to be about more than dreaming about imaginary draft picks. What could we do if we directed all that energy in a more productive direction? What does it say about our sense of collective stewardship? What does our entertainment say about our hearts?

(Editor’s Note: Stats are the most current available as of 10/24)

David Crosby, the lead singer for Crosby, Stills and Nash., became one of the most successful rock musicians of all time. But even at nearly 80 years old, Crosby could not stop hitting the road and promoting his music. He was worth over $40 million. And his wife did not want him to travel, but his entire sense of significance was wrapped in his music.

In a film about his life, Crosby expressed a lot of regrets. “People ask me if I got regrets,” he said. “Yeah, I got a huge regret about the time I wasted being smashed. I'm afraid. I'm afraid of dying. And I'm close. And I don't like it. I'd like to have more time—a lot more time.”

Crosby tells his interviewer that music “is the only thing I can contribute, the only thing I got to offer.” Then toward the end of the film, he raises the volume of his voice and the intensity of his delivery with these summarizing words: “The one thing I can do is make music. Myself. So, I'm trying really hard to do that.” His interviewer asks, “To prove yourself?” Crosby responds, “That I'm worth a [expletive].”

The following 10 things will happen around the world every 60 seconds of this new year:

• Births: Approximately 250 babies are born worldwide every minute. (Source: Worldometers)

• Deaths: Approximately 105 people die worldwide every minute. (Source: Worldometers)

• Marriages: Around 116 people get married worldwide every minute. (Source: The World Bank)

• YouTube Uploads: Approximately 500 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. (Source: YouTube)

• Packages Delivered: Amazon delivers approximately 1,200 packages per minute. (Source: Amazon)

• Emails Sent: Approximately 200 million emails are sent worldwide every minute. (Source: Statista)

• Google Searches: Approximately 40,000 Google searches are conducted every minute. (Source: Google)

• Social Media Posts: Approximately 1.5 million social media posts are made every minute. (Source: Statista)

• Netflix Streams: Approximately 100 million minutes of content are streamed on Netflix every minute. (Source: Netflix)

• Twitter Tweets: Approximately 500,000 tweets are sent every minute. (Source: Twitter)

Note: These statistics are approximate and can vary based on various factors.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Divine Knowledge; Omniscience of God – The multiplied billions of events around the world each minute are no match for the infinite knowledge of God. With him, a day is like a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8), he has an infinite amount of attention for each person’s hopes, pain, thoughts, and prayers (Matt. 10:30; Luke 12:7). (2) Redeeming the Time—Ephesians 5:16 reminds us to make the most of the time because the days are evil. (3) Accepting Christ; Conversion—This can also be the moment when you turn from sin and give your life to Christ.

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who believes that your child’s smartphone is a threat to mental well-being. His book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, hit the No. 1 spot on the New York Times’ best-seller list. This book has struck a chord with parents who have watched their kids sit slack-jawed and stock still for hours, lost in a welter of TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Facebook, and more. He says:

I do a little demonstration. I ask people, suppose a demon came to us in the nineties with three magical boxes. And he said, “You can open as many as you want, but if you open a box, it’s going to take fifteen hours a week from you.”

The first box is the Internet. You get this amazing thing, but it’s going to take fifteen hours a week from you. Would you open it? Are you glad we have the Internet? Everyone is glad we opened that box. We think that time is worth it.

The next box is the smartphone. You open it up. It’s this incredible digital Swiss Army knife (of apps and functions). It’s going to take another fifteen hours a week. So now you’re up to thirty hours a week on this. Do you want it? Are you glad we have smartphones? At that point, most hands go up. The great majority of adults say, “Yeah, I’m glad we opened that box.” Now you’re at thirty hours a week.

Next there’s a third box: social media – Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, TikTok. It’s going to be another fifteen hours a week. So now you’re up to forty-five hours a week. What do you think? Are you glad we opened that?

The great majority of people say, “I wish we hadn’t opened that one.” I’m not talking about keeping kids off the Internet. I’m talking about not allowing them … to give away their data, and some rights, to a company that does not have their interests at heart. That is using them as the product to sell to their customers who are the advertisers. That’s what I don’t want done to eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen-year-old kids.

Polish golfer Adrian Meronk stood over his second shot on the 18th hole of a pro tournament on March 3rd, 2024 and saw another opportunity to climb up the leaderboard. A late birdie in the final round would see him take home an even richer payday from the lucrative event.

But the time Meronk spent mulling that shot turned out to be extraordinarily costly.

Meronk’s birdie was changed to a par after he was assessed a one-stroke penalty for violating the pace of play policy. LIV Golf said that Meronk’s group, which included Masters champion Jon Rahm, had already been warned by a rules official for lagging behind. Then, on that shot on the 18th hole, Meronk was timed at over two minutes, exceeding the time allowed.

That proved to be hugely consequential. Had his original score stood, Meronk would have tied for fifth place with Rahm at 11-under and won $750,000 in prize money at LIV’s tournament in Saudi Arabia. Instead, Meronk ended up in a six-way tie for sixth and won $508,750—a loss of $241,250.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In a similar way, the pace of life these days is so fast and furious that it feels like we’re not keeping up, going faster and faster, will have dire consequences on our lives.

Sociologist Dalton Conley shares a story about backpacking through Europe when he was 18. He writes, “I had no iPhone. ... I couldn't Google. And I was alone.” But according to Conley his long stretches of solitude weren't a bad thing. We all need time to disconnect, cutting the umbilical cord of technology.

He continues, “Time away from our social networks … helps us figure out who we are. ... I'm afraid that with no solitude, we will become less, not more, connected to our friends and families.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Believers should also consider the necessity of solitude and the perils of our over-connected world. Used properly, solitude can connect us with God. Conley's main point needs to be heard—especially in noisy, busy, over-connected churches.

In both scientific research studies and informal surveys of friends and family, people considering purchasing electric vehicles often cite charger availability as a potential barrier. Most of the time, it’s purely about the lack of charging stations in a particular geographic region or metro area. But even in places where EV charging stations exist, availability can still be scarce, because of people who overstay their vehicular welcome.

One prominent charging company is trying to solve the problem. A CNN report identified Electrify America, one of the nation’s largest charging firms, as the first to enact a strict time limit in ten of its busiest fast charging stations in California. Once a car’s battery reaches 85 percent, charging ceases and the user is warned to disconnect or face a penalty fee of 40 cents per minute for idling.

Tesla cars are known to do something similar automatically; when a Tesla reaches 80 percent capacity, it requires a user override to continue. But at the Electrify America stations, there is no such possibility for override. It wants its customers to leave so that others can use the service.

According to Electrify America president Robert Barrosa, the public’s charging behavior is a carryover from a lifetime of experience driving gas cars, where it’s customary to fill to 100% capacity. “Once you’re at a charger, it’s like ‘Oh, yeah. I’m filling all the way.’” He went on to say that some drivers may not even be aware of the drop-off in charging speed to get to full battery status. Others may be aware, but could be planning trips in places where charging stations are scarce, and therefore feel justified in taking the extra time.

Still others might be incentivized by free charging agreements from certain car manufacturers. Like customers who take advantage of all-you-can-eat buffets at restaurants, they may not feel like there’s any downside to filling to their heart’s content.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Every act of consideration for another, no matter how small, can be a way to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Assistant Principal Raymond Dolphin knew he was taking a risk in December 2021 when he banned cell phones from Illing Middle School in Connecticut. But more than two years later, the program has become an unqualified success.

Secondary schools all over the U.S. are either enacting or considering some kind of cell phone ban, in part because of stories like Dolphin’s. Dan Connolly, one of the science teachers at Illing, used to have to nag students to put away their phones. “Now the first thing I say is, ‘Good morning,’ not ‘Take your Air Pods out.’”

Following the lead of not only schools but concert halls and comedy clubs, students at Illing are not required to surrender their phones, but place them in a special branded pouch called a Yondr, which can only be unlocked at certain school monitored stations.

Students at Illing predictably resisted the ban at first, but some of them have come around to seeing its benefits. “You can focus more,” said Chioma Brown, who’s grown so accustomed to the ban that she occasionally forgets that her phone is on her person.

Bans on cellphones have become much more commonplace in part because the relationship between students and their phones intensified during the pandemic years of persistent remote learning. According to Harvard Medical School psychologist Susan Linn, drastic actions like these must be taken to restore order and cultivate healthy learning environments. She said, “We have these devices which we know are at best habit-forming and at worst addictive that are increasingly linked to depression and loneliness. So why would we have them in schools?”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Living a life of holiness and devotion to God sometimes requires us to put restrictions on the things that distract us, not because such things are evil, but because they get in the way of hearing from God.

The gaming industry, valued at around 257 billion US dollars as of 2024, is on a winning streak. As the pandemic ceased, the competition among gaming platforms and the abundance of game choices dominated the entertainment market.

• Approximately 3.26 billion people worldwide play video games (40% of world population).
• 89.5% of video game sales happen in the digital world.
• In 2022, there were approximately 90 billion mobile game downloads from app stores.
• People between 18 and 34 comprise 38% of gamers globally.
• By 2025, the mobile games industry will reach 138 billion US dollars.
• Around 85% of all revenue in the digital game industry comes from free-to-play games.
• 8.4% of children and teens have problems with game addiction
• Approximately 69% of US households have at least one member playing video games.
• Approximately 77% of parents play games with their children because it allows them to spend time together and to socialize with their kids.

Editor’s Note: You can read the original article which cites many more statistics from a large number of sources here.

Over the last 20 years, research has consistently shown that fathers have a unique way of engaging with small children. Horsing around is more common with fathers than it is with mothers, especially as infants grow into toddlers and preschoolers. Studies show vigorous bouncing, lifting, tossing, and chasing take over from more gentle play, and this roughhousing leads to better self-control and school readiness as children turn five. The father’s rough-and-tumble play is also connected to better gross-motor skills in the child, regardless of the father’s income or education level.

A vast study, published in the journal Pediatric Research in the summer of 2023 adds weight to the idea that a father’s hands-on involvement underpins a child’s later ability to self-regulate and problem-solve. A research team from Japan sampled 28,040 children. At intervals of six months, from one month of age to their third birthday, each child’s mother was asked to rate the father’s participation in early child-rearing, including feeding, changing diapers, bathing, dressing, playing at home or outdoors, and putting the child to sleep. Japanese fathers are typically less involved in child-rearing than North American fathers. But when the researchers examined the children’s milestones at age three, they discovered that children whose fathers invested more time in their care showed better gross and fine motor skills, problem solving, and social skills than children whose fathers were not as involved.

There was no difference between the language skills of kids with involved versus aloof fathers. The lead researcher concluded that “the risk of developmental delay in children with highly involved fathers was 24% lower.”

“Now that you are retired, it’s time to play pickleball all day, every day.”

That’s the message from the front of a retirement card. It reflects the growing popularity of pickleball in the United States, especially among older adults. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the country. An article in TIME observes, “More than half (52%) of core [pickleball] players—those who play eight or more times a year—are 55 or older, and almost a third (32.7%) are 65-plus.”

If playing pickleball all day, every day isn’t your cup of tea, perhaps you’d rather have the poster that proclaims, “Retirement To Do List . . . Play Golf.”

Both the card and the poster bear witness to the popular view that retirement is mainly a time to play. For some, it’s pickleball or golf. For others, it’s cribbage or Wordle. For many retirees, travel is a delightful form of play, as is hanging out with friends or grandchildren. No matter the form it takes, play can be seen as the main point of retirement. “You worked hard for decades,” or so the story goes, “now it’s your turn to play.”

But, I wonder, is this a good way to think about retirement? If we want to flourish in this third of life—to live fully, fruitfully, and faithfully—where should play fit into our lives? Can play help us flourish? Or might it actually get in the way?

Shortly into her term, Senator Laphonza Butler was hailed for a magnanimous gesture that threatens to eclipse her entire legislative agenda. Butler decided not to run for re-election.

Butler had been appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve as interim Senator for the state of California after the exit of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, who’d occupied the role for three decades. Because of Feinstein’s gradually declining health, several prominent California Democrats in Congress had been lining up to become her replacement. But not wanting to take sides, Newsom sidestepped Representatives Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee and instead awarded the role to Butler.

According to political analysts, the appointment gave Butler a legitimate opening for Butler to properly campaign for the Senate seat. Bill Carrick said that Butler “could have been a player.” But Butler decided that the best thing to do for her family and for the state would be to relinquish her seat at the end of her term. Butler said in her announcement “Knowing you can win a campaign doesn’t always mean you should run a campaign.”

She included a motivational quote from one of her sports heroes: “Muhammad Ali once said, ‘Don’t count the days, make the days count.’ I intend to do just that.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

It's amazing what we can accomplish when we care more about helping others than helping ourselves.

In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognized "internet gaming disorder" (IGD). Addicts play pathologically. They can't stop—they play even after their mental health and careers have suffered great harm. The WHO estimates that at least 60 million people worldwide suffer this condition. Fortnite, a combat, survival and violent online video game is the most played of all time, boasting over 500 million registered users.

Today, games are less expensive, more accessible, and more technically advanced than ever before. Psychology professor Jeffrey Derevensky, who advised the WHO panel, said, "Kids are walking around with a mini-console in their pockets. Gaming is a hidden addiction. You can't smell it on their breath and you can't see it in their eyes. And so parents are often totally unaware of what their children are doing."

Maclean's magazine writer and former addict Luc Rinaldi describes how playing, and especially winning, can meet basic needs:

I replayed Resident Evil 4 a dozen times because there's something endlessly satisfying about blowing up a zombie's head. But my favorite games were the ones that offered something my real life lacked. Exploring the fantasy world of Skyrim, I wasn't just some kid in the suburbs of Toronto; I was a noble swordsman on an epic quest to save the realm. In a video game, even a loner can feel like a king … The high was intoxicating.

The obsession runs deep. One North Carolina boy kept playing as a tornado was leveling his town. A study published in Nature showed that gaming can more than double a player's baseline dopamine levels. Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman claims that, for some players, “gaming can increase dopamine levels as much as having sex or snorting cocaine. Our brains are programmed to seek out more of these hits, which is what drives gamers to keep gaming.”

Like all addictions, there comes the inevitable crash. The trouble is that the euphoric feelings don't last. Gamers develop tolerances. They need to play more to achieve the same rush. After overloading their brains with happy signals, an equal and opposite reaction occurs. Their baseline dopamine level drops. They get angry, sad, and apathetic.

A new poll has found 77% of middle-aged Americans between 35 and 54 years old want to return to a time before society was always “plugged in,” a time before the always-on internet and cell phones in our pockets ruled our lives.

But it wasn’t just middle-agers. The poll also found 63% of people aged 18 to 34 years old also want to go back to simpler times—even though most of them never experienced those days. Weirdly, fewer Baby Boomers want to go back, with 60% of people older than 55 saying they want to return to pre-internet days. Overall, two-thirds (67%) of poll respondents said “they’d prefer things as they used to be versus as they are now.”

There’s merit to the desire to go back. Take the work-from-home phenomenon that exploded as the world sunk into the COVID-19 pandemic. Sure, it’s nice to be home, but with the advent of constant connectivity, the work day often starts shortly after you wake up and ends well into the evening. In between, everyone can reach you at all times.

All that is over. Bosses have no qualms about sending workers an email or text at 9 p.m. asking for something to be done immediately. And forget those hourlong lunches (what we called a “lunch break”—and we did it daily, taking off from noon to 1 p.m. to relax and recharge). Now, we slam down a sandwich while tapping away on our computers. It never ends. Makes sense most of us want to go back.

A burst of recent editorials have criticized AI tools like ChatGPT as a threat to educational goals over concerns that students would abuse the technology. However, educators are beginning to come around to the value of artificial intelligence – not for students, but for the teachers themselves.

Kansas high school teacher Mike Harris said that normally, designing a 16-week drama class that adheres to state standards would take him at least a full workday. He asked ChatGPT to engage the task, however, and he said he had a workable outline in a few minutes. He also used it to break down the class into daily lesson plans. The 10-year veteran drama teacher said, “To me, that’s the wonder of the tool. This is one of those once-in-a-millennia technology changes.”

Experts recommend using caution when applying AI tools to complex tasks, particularly in the field of education, because the technology is still prone to making errors. Still, many educators would rather use their time rigorously fact-checking the output of an AI rather than starting from scratch.

Sarah Alvick is a social studies teacher who says AI is also helpful for teachers having difficulty engaging students with the task of writing. She said, “You’ll have a kid who sits for a whole week, saying, ‘I don’t know what to write about.’” With AI, she tells students to use it “to assist you, not to do it for you.” She is concerned about the loss of critical thinking, but seems to feel that the positives outweigh the negatives.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Technology constantly brings changes to the way we do things. We need to wisely put it to use as a tool, without it becoming a crutch or a way to avoid hard work.

Do you realize that 30 percent of all men of working age in this culture are not working? There are many reasons for this. Some workers lack the skills needed for all but the lowest-paid jobs. Some jobs have been eliminated because of technology advances or cheaper overseas labor. Some have discovered government benefits that enable them to avoid working.

A study for the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, reports that “75 percent of inactive prime-age men are in a household that received some form of government transfer payment.” The researcher believes that government disability benefits in particular are one reason for the lack of interest in work.

Another trend toward irresponsibility is the growth of the video-gaming culture in our society. Many young men and women are spending countless hours every day or many hours of the night just gaming away. They may lose sleep, college opportunities, and work advancement with addictions to meaningless competitions that consume time and energy but produce nothing.

Possible Preaching Angle:

What would you call a pastime where a person spends all their time, all their money, all their resources, pursuing things that are not real and that never will benefit them or society? We would call it slavery. And those who are enslaved by such meaningless pursuits ultimately lose all respect for themselves. Work gives us dignity, because work itself is dignified.