Commuting in Days of Evil

I spent the summer of 2009 working in Dallas. I lived there 32 years before moving to Kentucky which means I commuted to work for ten years after college. When I moved to a small town I gained something of incredible value which I’ve only come to appreciate by being back in Dallas. I gained time. For most of human history, 90 percent of us were farmers, right? We lived and worked at home. But as prosperity spread to an increasing middle class and people began to move more and more into cities to work, an unforeseen time-sucking habit emerged: the daily commute. Technology tried to speed up the process, turning the walk or horse ride into a bus or car ride. But then we all bought cars and, instead of the commute getting rushed, it got rush hours—two of them a day.

But I am blessed. In Grayson Kentucky, I can go from door to door (house to office) in one minute and forty seconds (yes, I timed it). Or I can walk to work in five minutes. Church is one minute the other direction. Stores, restaurants and the high school are all within five minutes of home. To be at work by 8 a.m., I don’t have to get up till 7 a.m. And when the work day is done I’m home at 5:05 p.m. I know…you’re thinking, “Lucky skunk!” Yeah, it’s true. And a summer of driving in Dallas again reminded me of just how blessed I am.

An Evil Amount of Time

I understand how tough it is on those of you who will have to commute for the rest of your lives. If your drive to work is thirty minutes a day (and another half hour coming home) and you work 50 weeks a year, you’ll spend 250 hours a year in your car, and that’s not counting trips to the store, the bank, your church, or to ferry your kids around. If you work for only 40 years in your life you’ll log 10,000 hours of driving time—and, again, that’s only your work related driving. That’s a lot of hours! Some people have shorter commutes, true. Fifteen minutes one way would only take 5,000 hours out of your life. But a lot of people have much longer commutes. When I originally lived in Dallas, I spent many years commuting 45 minutes to work, and most people in big cities would consider that average.

This insidious time-sucking activity called the daily commute (part of a larger harrowing experience we call “the rat race”) was certainly not what Paul had in mind when he wrote, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). But it occurs to me that so many of the dangers and losses of modern life occur without our really thinking very much about them or doing things differently in response. But of course, what can you do about your commute? We can, with some discipline, limit our time watching TV, talking or texting on a phone, and fiddling on the computer in favor of better things, but what can possibly be done about having to spend so much time driving from home to work? Is there anything we can do to follow Paul’s advice and “make the most of” even these opportunities?

Strategies

1. The least likely strategy for most of us would be to move closer to work or change jobs. It’s possible but rare.
2. Only slightly more likely is the possibility of adjusting work hours to avoid the rush. Working 7 to 4 or 9 to 6 could cut valuable minutes from the drive, but this strategy depends entirely on your employer or the kind of job you work.
3. And so we come to slightly more doable options. If you live in a big city, and despite the apparent hassle of doing so, look into mass transit. You’re still travelling as much, but the time is now your own to “make the most of.” And be sure to do so. Don’t zone out and nap, don’t plug in head phones and listen to music—you can do those things any time. Read the books you’ve been saying you want to get to, read your Bible, make friends, or sit in silence and say long, diligent, daily prayers.
4. That leaves all of you who must drive to work. Can you car pool? Sometimes in carpools you can do some of the things mentioned above, and you can at least work on building relationships with co-workers. Praying while driving is not a bad thing. You can’t concentrate on God completely since you have to watch the road, but praying is better than letting the radio run. And then there are audio books, another way to “read” all those books you’ve wanted to read—books for pleasure and books for Christian growth. There are even audio Bibles. My friend Kevin Reed suggested using audio CD’s to learn another language during the daily commute. Ten thousand hours on the road could mean a whole lot of books or Bible read and a whole lot of prayers said, if you’ll only “make the most” of what might otherwise be an evil time.