Have you run across any of these bumper stickers?
• Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow?
• National Procrastination Week has been postponed till next week.
• I put the “pro” in procrastination!
• I’m taking care of my procrastination issues — just you wait and see!
• Procrastinate now. Don’t put it off!
• From a procrastination standpoint, today has been wildly successful!
• I’m not a procrastinator. I just prefer doing my work in a deadline-induced panic!
What do you think when you read those? I can remember one of my procrastination experiences in seminary. I was at Andrews University in Michigan. Regarding the study required and the expectations given, the seminary was more challenging than undergraduate college had been. Significantly more reading and writing were required. College papers had been in the 5-10 pages; seminary papers were in the 20–25 pages. Professors might require a certain number of hours of reading rather than a certain number of pages. The problem was that you couldn’t skim read. And the hours didn’t get any shorter toward the end of the quarter.
I should have known not to procrastinate. But when spring quarter came, the snow melted, the flowers bloomed, the grass turned green, and the air felt warm, everyone wanted to be outside — including me. Trips to nearby Warren Dunes at Lake Michigan were popular. It was so easy to procrastinate, and that’s what I did until I had to do it in a last-minute panic.
You’ve been there. And so, apparently, have others deep in the dim past of our biblical heritage, because the wise man who wrote the wisdom of the book of Proverbs wrote quite often about procrastination, about putting things off, and about simple laziness.
Consider, for example, Proverbs 22:13. Here’s how the New Living Translation renders it:
The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion out there!
If I go outside, I might be killed!”
And so that person stays inside, stays safe, stays in bed, and leaves the work for another “safer” day. What are the “lions” in your life? What are the things that cause you to put off what needs to be done today? What are your personal reasons for procrastination? There are many options, you know. Such as:
• If I don’t do it now, it will be easier when I do have to do it.
• If I wait till later, maybe I won’t have to do it at all!
• I have too many other things I’d rather do — need to do — at the moment.
• I can’t do it perfectly, so I just won’t do it. At least not until I get things all perfectly lined up to do it.
• I just don’t have the energy right now.
Some live in a lion-infested world.
So what can help? Consider these simple suggestions.
The courage it requires to act right now turns into that wonderful feeling that comes when the task is done. So, remember how you’ll feel when it’s done, and remember how you’ll feel if you don’t do it.
Further, it probably takes more energy to avoid the task than just simply to do it. Then ask God for strength to face the unlikeable right now.
Don’t forget: Jesus is the ultimate lion-tamer.
—Randy Roberts, DMin, is vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.
