There is a green Jojo water tank outside the kitchen with a tap attached to it. One day I’ll find out why they are called Jojo tanks in South Africa. Anyway, once in a long while the water level drops and the water pours out ever so slowly.
Under normal conditions, it takes 3 minutes to fill a 20 litre bucket. Yes, I have measured this on various occasions. More by accident than for any real science. This time extends as the water level drops and to a point where it takes a really long time to fill a bucket.
I’ve been meditating on this scenario over the last month or so. With certainty, once the tap is opened and sufficient pressure exists in the system, the bucket WILL fill up. It may take three minutes or 6 minutes or 30 minutes but it will fill up.
Another scenario plays out on the farm when it rains. Mom religiously collects rain water! I mean religiously. If you think there’s a place in hell for sinners, I’m convinced that for mom there exists a reserved location in hell for those who do not collect rainwater. I’ve heard mom wake-up at 2am to get the buckets out because she hears raindrops on the roof
When it rains she will place buckets and baths under the eaves to catch drops. Depending on the rainfall it can take 10 minutes to fill a bucket or one whole evening.
I’ve set this up at length because after seeing these scenes playout on the farm year after year, I may not be sure that Jesus’ return but I am sure that a bucket placed under eaves during rainfall will fill up. And it is that certainty that has come to dominate my mind on all projects big or small.
The steady application of effort gets results. You don’t need an army to get something done. a number of people willing to exert their effort in one common direction will get the necessary results. It may take 10 minutes or an entire evening but it WILL happen.
So to answer the question in the title…
Assume 1 drop is equal to 50 cubic millimetres and knowing that one litre is in fact 1,000,000 cubic millimetres. If my maths is any good, you would need 20 000 drops to fill a litre. This extends to 400,000 drops to fill a 20 litre bucket.