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Have you made promises to God that, because of procrastination, you have not fulfilled?
Procrastination is a weakness most of us have. I was struck by a podcast by Darren Rowse entitled “My Million Dollar Blog Post and How Procrastination Almost Stopped Me Writing it”. (https://problogger.com/podcast/my-million-dollar-blog-post-and-how-procrastination-almost-stopped-me-writing-it/)
He spoke about a blog post he promised to write, something that he thought about many times but which took years before he finally did it.
Fears and many other excuses deterred him from doing it. And when he finally did it, it resulted in huge traffic and thousands of dollars in revenues. He was ecstatic but also realized that if he wrote that blog post way back 12 years ago when he first thought about it, it could have been a million dollar post by today!
Darren advised: If you’ve been avoiding something and it’s still in your mind, it’s probably an important thing…something that you really should do. Also, pay attention particularly to the things that you’ve got a bit of fear about. Fear is a signal that something important is going to happen.
How many of us realize how many opportunities pass us by in many areas of our life simply by procrastination?
The same thing could be true of our promises to do good works for God and our fellowmen. Personally, I myself am guilty of procrastination.
This blog, for example, many times have I encountered inspiring messages that touched me and promised to share them here. However, due to some distractions, I put off writing them down and eventually forgot about them. Later, I try to recapture the insight and inspiration but these are gone. I regret I did not do it right away. If I immediately jotted down my thoughts when the inspration hit me, if I did not allow busyness and other excuses to procastinate, those thoughts and messages could have benefited or helped someone.
While attending Holy Mass today, the challenge posed to us by the minister coincided with this theme. He said, I want you to do something for the poor THIS WEEK, not next week. No matter how small, do it this week.
I am reminded of a song, “Kailan pa”. The gist of the song is that… when will you give your life and strength for God? When your time has passed and it is too late? When will you serve? If not today, then when? (https://filipinochristianmusic.blogspot.com/2017/05/kailan-pa-papuri-singers-chords-and.html)
Life is short and we do not know how much time we have on earth.
Do you have something in mind that you think will benefit the church or the less fortunate? Even if you doubt, DO IT THIS WEEK… better still, DO IT TODAY.
INSIGHT:
Sometimes, we allow ourselves to get distracted by other things such as reading our emails, doing some chores first and promise ourselves to get back to what we intended to do… later. We keep putting off until we forget our promise.
Sometimes we lack confidence or we fear how others will receive our output.
Fear comes from the Devil, not from God. The same is true with distractions. He will do everything to stop you from getting started on that important thing.
So next time there is something you think is good and just afraid ör having so many excuses from doing it, just do it. God will do the rest.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you for making me more conscious of procrastination and how it affects my life and the fulfilment of my life purpose.
God, please help me overcome my fears. Give me the grace to fight distractions and lazyness. Inspire me to use each day you gave me to do good works for the sake of your Kingdom. Please make my eyes open to the opportunities to serve you everyday.
Amen.
