Redeem Your Commute

Be honest, how many of us struggle to get all the reading, praying, worshiping, studying, and sermon-listening done in a day that we would ideally like to get done? I, for one, feel as though I could spend all day reading and still have so far to go. I have given the following advice to a few people in the last couple of months, and so I thought I'd share it here for the at-large population.

Many of us have some level of commute to work built into our daily routine. For those living in Chicago, or any metropolitan area, this could include going from the suburbs into the city or vise versa. It could mean that you're taking the bus/train. For those from my hometown, it could mean making a 45-mile drive to wherever. For me, it means driving to the train, then taking the train downtown, then sometimes walking from a stop to my actual place of work (depending on what line I ride in on). All in all, it's an hour one-way for me. That's two hours every day. Perhaps you can relate. Perhaps you can also relate to thinking, 'What should I be doing with this time?'

My advice? Redeem your commute.

Let's face it, even taking the train downtown, which is lovely in many ways, loses its luster after a time. I'm not in it for the scenery or the experience; it's a means to an end. And since it is routine, it is easy to fall into, well, a routine. Out the door; get in car; drive to park near train; walk to train; board train; get off train; walk to work; punch in; pour coffee; start day. It's easy to get into the habit of listening to music or, worse, talk radio, checking Facebook, reading the paper, texting friends, playing games, and the like.

Allow me to flip your commute on its head. These minutes and hours are ideal for all kinds of activities that will build you up rather than drain you out. Namely, you can read. With the advent of the Kindle and other such e-readers, you can literally take your library with you in a nice, neat package. You can be reading theological classics on the way to work rather than the Wall Street Journal. If you're like me, you prefer actual, tangible books for the purposes of taking notes. By all means, take them and read them. I joke that I travel with a small library wherever I go. Or, read the Bible if you don't have a regular, pre-commute, morning devotional time.

If reading on a train makes you motion-sick, load up your mp3 player with sermons from your pastor and some of the great preachers of today. Supplement what your pastor preached on Sunday with what other preachers have said about the same passage of Scripture. Get audio books and let someone read a classic to you. Or, listen to the Bible. There are so many quality audio versions of the Bible, some of them free, that you can absorb the Word without actually picking up a copy of it.

Or, load up on worship music and sing to the Lord on the way to work. This works best with those who drive to work, but if you're bold feel free to do so on the train. This will also help you get a seat to yourself!

Take time to pray on your way in. Pray for wisdom, direction, grace for the day, opportunities to proclaim the gospel, chances to display the love of Christ, and/or boldness to pray for people who have needs as they express them, even if they aren't expecting it.

To make this more tangible, here is my general routine. I pray while I'm driving to the train. This gives me a good 10-15 minutes of time with just me and the Lord. I walk to the train, and then I put in my headphones to listen to some music (usually instrumental). Since it's pretty early in the morning, I'm usually able to grab a seat on the train. This enables me to more easily read due my incessant note-taking in my books. I get a solid 30 minutes of reading in while on the train. You'd be amazed at what a focused 30 minutes of reading can accomplish. I also get an hour for lunch at work. Sometimes I use this time to just relax, other times to eat with co-workers or meet with people from church, other times to catch up on social media chatter, other times to write a bit, still other times to read some more. Then there's the commute home, which is usually spent standing as the trains are too packed to try to sit. I generally use this time to listen to a sermon or some worship music (bobbing my head a little bit...). If I'm really into a book at the time, I'll hazard the standing-while-reading-with-pencil-in-hand posture, but these times are not common.

I am not here going to discuss the merits/demerits of 'closing myself off' to those on the train with me - meaning I'm not going to tackle the intentional vs relational evangelism debate. I am simply making the point that, for many of us, there are hours in the day available to redeem for the purposes of growing in our relationships with Christ. This can be done in many ways, but it requires an intentionality that is often absent when speaking of the dreaded 'commute'. Don't dread the commute - redeem it.