Note fromPastor: “Putting Off Procrastination” Part 5
Love for Christ and love for others is crippled by procrastination. Procrastination is not thinking of God or others, but only thinking of self. Repentance has a strange way of creating new awareness of the consequences of our sin. Procrastinators unload their responsibilities onto others and thereby miss out on opportunities to love and serve others. Disorder in one’s own life robs others. Every time a commitment is broken or a deadline is fudged, God’s character is poorly reflected and others are affected. Jesus spoke against procrastination when He said, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’’ (Matthew 28:18-20). In my own battle with procrastination I came to realize that I needed to learn not so much how to control my heart, but how to subdue it. None of us has a “fully sanctified” part that can perfectly diagnose and control the sinful part of us; rather our whole heart is unreliable (Jeremiah 17:9)! Once we come to recognize the unreliableness of our heart, it gives us an appreciation for God’s corporate means of sanctification: accountability, honesty, fellowship, and transparency with other believers in the local church. To overcome procrastination I had to involve my close friends and grant them a standing invitation to show me my sin and to remind me of the gospel (Ephesians 4:15). I learned to ask for encouragement when I knew I was facing a heavy work load or extra responsibilities. These small steps led to my eyes being opened wider to the whole-person consequences of sin: sins are often connected or intertwined or overlapping; like far-reaching tentacles. No sin affects only one part of life; it seeps and spreads into many areas, like an infected wound. If I had last-minute deadlines, which still happens, I’ve learned to go to bed earlier in order to get enough sleep to have the energy to fulfill my responsibilities. What did I learn? I had always thought of myself as a “night person,” but it turns out that I’m actually a “morning person!” By subduing my heart, bringing it into submission by obeying God’s Word over an extended period of time, new habits were created and I learned that I am more efficient, energetic, and productive in the morning hours than in the evening. Though I have much to learn, God has worked to crush my sinful procrastination. Working ahead instead of working under pressure still seems unnatural at times. My new ideal is to work with last-minute intensity, but well before the deadline. I’m still prone to laziness, pride, and escapism, and always will be in this life, and just as I had to initially repent of my unbelief that God can change me, I now repent of the false thought that God wants to change me “more and more.” Life is the process of “working out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12-13) knowing that “it is God who is at work in me to will and to act according to His good purpose.” Putting off procrastination can lead to a much more outward-directed and other-centered way of life, where pleasing God is the driving passion (Philippians 3:10).
