Last summer, I printed out Psalm 77 to carry with me on my trip through Africa. There were plenty of times when I was sitting around waiting for a flight, train or bus when I could work on committing this chapter of the Bible to memory. I made pretty good progress on it! Then, when I returned to the States, I spent about three weeks at my brother’s house. While there, since I was still on summer break from school, I had time to take long walks in the morning. As I walked around his neighborhood, I finished memorizing Psalm 77. I had plenty of time to recite it over and over in my mind and really internalize it! What a fun and awesome feeling. 

Then, I returned home and jumped back into my regular work routine. No more one- to two-hour walks in the mornings. No more sitting around waiting for planes, trains or buses to pull away from the station. I was back in my on-the-go routine, and I was determined to find a way to keep memorizing Scripture with a routine that would be easily sustainable. By coincidence (or not), I heard several different pastors, podcasters, etc. make comments on their own memorization routines, but none of them sounded quite right for me.

Finally, and kinda by accident, I found the perfect solution! I printed out my next Scriptural conquest (Isaiah 61) and propped the paper up near my bathroom sink. I’m not a huge make-up girl, but I do spend several minutes by my bathroom sink before work and in afternoons and evenings when I’m at home. …washing my hands, brushing my teeth, using the mirror for something or other. And guess what? I realized that even those few little minutes here and there could be the PERFECT time to slowly but surely chip away at memorizing another chapter of the Bible. Wah-lah! 

God opened my eyes to a tiny little pocket of time that could be a gamechanger. I didn’t have to make any huge changes or try to find an hour a day when I could just sit and work on Bible memorization. That’s actually a somewhat intimidating thought to consider, isn’t it? I think that sometimes when we think about something like memorizing Scripture, we automatically assume it will be hugely time consuming and impossible to accomplish in the midst of our busy schedules. But when you stop and think about it, even 2-3 minutes a few times a day might be all you really need. 

Did I make progress on Isaiah 61 at breakneck speed? Definitely not. But did I chip away at it? Yesss, and it felt amazing. I finished it and am now working on Isaiah 60. (Backwards, I know.) 

So what pockets of time can you find tucked into your day? Minutes spent at your bathroom sink/mirror? Minutes spent waiting to pick up kids from school or activities? Minutes spent waiting for kids during their activities? Minutes spent driving? Minutes spent waiting in checkout lines? Minutes spent walking, running or exercising? Minutes spent riding public transportation? I could go on and on…

What could you fit into those minutes? Is there something the Holy Spirit has been nudging you about? It might not be Bible memorization. Perhaps it’s prayer, meditation, Bible reading or worship. Whatever it is that you feel the Holy Spirit suggesting in this moment, pray about finding the perfect little spot in your daily routine to fit it in just beautifully. 

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. -Psalm 90:12

What if you not only asked God to teach you to number your days, but also your minutes? Our time here on earth is limited. With every passing second, we move closer and closer toward Jesus’ return and our personal finish lines. Which will come first? It’s impossible to know. But in the meantime, what is possible is living with a sense of urgency and a determination to use the time we have to draw nearer to Jesus and follow after Him with all of our mind, will and emotions. 

Pray about your little pockets of time and how God might be able to use them for His glory! 

I’m sure you’ve heard some of the statistics about how being just slightly off navigationally can make a huge difference. Author Antone Roundy said this about the power of a 1 degree difference: 

If you’re going somewhere and you’re off course by just 1 degree, after one foot, you’ll miss your target by 0.2 inches. Trivial, right? But what about as you get farther out?

• After 100 yards, you’ll be off by 5.2 feet. Not huge, but noticeable.
• After a mile, you’ll be off by 92.2 feet. One degree is starting to make a difference.
• After traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles., you’ll be off by 6 miles.
• If you were trying to get from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., you’d end up on the other side of Baltimore, 42.6 miles away.
• Traveling around the globe from Washington, D.C., you’d miss by 435 miles and end up in Boston.
• In a rocket going to the moon, you’d be 4,169 miles off (nearly twice the diameter of the moon).
• Going to the sun, you’d miss by over 1.6 million miles (nearly twice the diameter of the sun).
• Traveling to the nearest star, you’d be off course by more than 441 billion miles (120 times the distance from the earth to Pluto, or 4,745 times the distance from earth to the sun).

Well, what about if you used a few minutes each day to get just 1 degree closer to Jesus? How might that compound over time? You might not be able to tell a noticeable difference immediately, but as the days roll on, it’s exciting to imagine what might happen.