There is a last half phenomenon that I wish we could reverse. 

The phenomenon is that the second half of something goes faster or is repeated faster than the first half.

Have you ever watched the gas gauge on your car? You fill the tank up and are all set for five to six hundred kilometres of driving. No worries for a while – a good long while. 

But after the gauge drops to halfway, you need to keep your eye on that gauge because the needle starts to move faster. You look at it and think, “Wow, how did I get to a quarter of a tank? I was at halfway just a day or two ago.” 

That’s the last half phenomenon and nobody writes about it, studies it, or puts out scientific journals about it. 

It seems that we just accept it or maybe, more accurately, we don’t want to think about it because this phenomenon happens in every area of life. 

If you ask a ten year old about their birthday that is coming up in a month, they will say, “I can hardly wait. It’s taking so long to come. It feels like it’s never going to get here.” 

I remember being in grade three and feeling like I was spending three years of my life in that grade. I wondered if grade three would ever end. 

But if you ask someone who is over fifty about an event that is coming up in the next month, they’ll tell you that it’s coming so quickly, it will be here before you know it. Older people think time is moving really fast. They say the years just fly by. 

It’s that last half phenomenon – the last half goes quicker than the first half. 

There have been some people who have tried to manipulate things to produce this phenomenon in their products. A few years ago, Apple Inc. was accused of reducing their iPhone battery’s charging length once the device got to be a certain age. 

That was tricky, and I’m not sure Apple was ever made to reverse that in their products.

… Which brings me to why I was thinking about this last half phenomenon in the first place. 

I have had my latest iPad for a long time now – either five or six years. I’ve noticed lately that when the battery gets low, I almost have to run to plug it in. 

I have a little icon of a battery on my iPad that shows a depleting green fill as the battery gets used. I also have a percentage figure right beside that to tell me the percentage of battery I have left. 

When my battery gets to about 20%, that number starts to count down almost as fast as the second hand on a digital watch. 

I run to plug my iPad into the charger because I know I don’t have much time left. 

… How old are you? Do you feel like I do with my iPad?

Here’s the thing: No matter how old we are, time is ticking away. To be honest, we never know how much time we have left. Your life could be cut short today or tomorrow. But for anyone who feels that life is moving pretty fast, my advice is to make sure you have considered Christ’s saving solution. He died so that you could have life – eternal life. Now that changes the whole last half phenomenon completely. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find goes faster than you would like it to go? Leave your questions and comments below. 

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