Procrastination

I was supposed to write this a while ago, but I kept putting it off. You know, I was busy; I had stuff to do. I couldn’t take the time to sit down and clear my head long enough to write a post.

There were a lot of important things that needed to be done. How could I possibly consider doing anything else, like writing a post? The air in my tires needed changing, the muffler bearings on my Mustang needed to be serviced, and the radiator on my wife’s ’69 VW Beetle needed to be flushed. Too much stuff to do, too little time.

It’s all a lie.

It’s a lie I tell to myself, and I tell it very convincingly. My grandfather told me more than once, “Nobody can lie to you like you can lie to you.” And like so many things, he was right. If you try hard enough, you can convince yourself of anything. You can justify any sin, you can explain away guilt or conviction, you can believe that your actions are right, even when you know they aren’t.

So what lies do you tell yourself? What parts of your life have you let slip by? What sins or weaknesses in your life have you decided you just can’t get past, so you don’t work on eliminating them?

To me, it comes down to procrastination and laziness. It is easier to just accept things as they are, or even to complain about them, than it is to take the steps necessary to fix them. If I can use the excuse that I’m too busy, or not capable, then in my eyes (and my eyes only) I am off the hook.

Thankfully, God doesn’t want me to accept my shortcomings, and he certainly doesn’t want me to be lazy. Look at a couple of things the Bible says:

Proverbs 10:34 “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.”

Proverbs 6:6 “You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions. So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed? A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent houseguest!”

That’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? God wants us to be productive, and to work hard. There are rewards for working hard, and penalties for being lazy. That includes working hard on yourself.

Don’t just accept your shortcomings and weaknesses. Ask God to give you the strength and the will to overcome them. The thing is, he won’t just do it. He wants your sweat equity. Would it really mean anything to you if it didn’t cost you something? Nope, and you know it.

So what will you do? Remain as you are, or become the man God wants you to be. Only one of those will help you in the long run. So what are you waiting for? Get up and start already!

Getting down to business… Jerry