“Putting Off Procrastination” Part 2

Note fromPastor: “Putting Off Procrastination” Part 2 This series on procrastination is in many ways my own story because it is something that ruled my life for many years until God used His Word and His Spirit to convict me to the point of changing for His glory. It can still be a temptation at times, but God by His grace has produced lots of growth in my heart and life, and I want to be transparent with the reader in order to point you toward the Divine plan for wise use of our time and to give you hope that change is possible. Procrastinating patterns are always highly systematic: infecting all areas of life, and operating in orderly, predictable ways. Usually we are ignorant of how this “procrastination system” operates within our heart and in our life. As we search the Scriptures for a theology of work, we come to places like 2 Thessalonians 3:11, which identifies “idlers or busybodies” who were not pulling their weight in the young church there. “Busybody” is a compound word of the verb “to work” and a preposition meaning “around.” So the second part of the verse can read “Such people do not work at all; instead, they work around.” All of a sudden I can see myself! There I am buzzing diligently all around the office or the house doing many things, but avoiding that one thing I need to do the most. I wasn’t just a procrastinator, I was a “work-around-er.” Charlie Hummel wrote a book called Tyranny of the Urgent. He marveled that Jesus could say on the cross, “It is finished,” even though so much of His Kingdom work was still incomplete. Hummel argues that Jesus could say this because He had done all the work the Father had given Him to do. The connection to my own procrastination sin became very clear: unless I’m doing what God has called me to do, I’m doing someone else’s work. When we procrastinate, we are effectively meddling in things that are “none of our business” – much like the common definition of “busybody” in 2 Thessalonians 3:11, we “work around” the main thing we should be doing. In John 5:17, Jesus said that both He and His Father were working, and that His Father is always at work. Working, completing tasks, is a reflection of a Divine attribute. We are active because we are made in God’s image, and He is an active God. This is part of a sound theology of work. Jesus came into the world to complete specific work that He was given, and He completed His work thoroughly and He completed it very well, with excellence. Jesus’ focus was on His own work. He never meddled in someone else’s work and He was not a “work-around-er.” We should think carefully about the work that God has called each of us to complete each day: employee, student, spouse, parent, child, friend, church member, Christian. We fulfill various roles and each comes with work to be done. We must train ourselves not to “work around.” Next time we will begin to look at the reasons why we are so often tempted to be “work-around-ers,” in order to get to the root of procrastination.


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