Read: Genesis 37:1-38:30, Matthew 12:22-45, Psalm 16:1-11, Proverbs 3:27-32
Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father…
Sometime later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the cistern. When he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief. Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, “The boy is gone! What will I do now?”
(Genesis 37:22, 29-30)
Relate:
I’ve been wanting to write about procrastination for a while now, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Seriously, it has always been one of those things that… someday. Am I the only one? The genius behind the website Wait But Why does an excellent TED Talk on procrastination. In it he talks about how we procrastinators have in our brains a rational decision maker as well as an instant gratification monkey. The problem is that we allow the monkey too much control in our lives and the only way we can retake control is when a third person in our brain, the panic monster, shows up and scares the monkey away. It’s a really cool talk and I don’t feel like I am doing it justice. But whatever. If you want, sometime, you can go google it.
It is easy to crunch and cram when there is a hard and fast deadline in front of me. This past year I was doing online classes for my Master’s degree. Pretty much every week there would be a midnight deadline on paper or a quiz due. Since I was in Turkey, I technically had an extra seven hours so it was due first thing when I wake up. I can’t tell you how many times I would start that paper when I got home the afternoon of the deadline. Or worse, after dinner the day I got home. Or worse yet, after watching an episode or two of Away, or Star Trek Discovery, or Mandalorean. I’d be cranking it out into the wee hours in the morning and then going through the next day on an hour or two of sleep. Every time I would promise myself never again. But every time… again.
React: Reuben was a procrastinator. He thought, I’ll come back and take care of Joseph later. The problem was, his later was too late. By the time he got around to it, Joseph was already sold into slavery. He missed his opportunity. What opportunities might we be missing because we have put it off to later. For papers and assignments, I don’t really have much problem being a procrastinator. But what about putting off calling my brother? What about witnessing to my neighbor sometime later? What about spending quality time with our kids? The most important things in life don’t come with deadlines. And the last thing we want to do is wait too long until the opportunity to do it has passed us by. Do it now. Later is not promised.
Respond:
Dear God,
Forgive me for the opportunities I have wasted because I promised myself a later that never came. Forgive me for the times I have wasted doing nothing when there was something that desperately needed doing. Give me a deeper sense of urgency when it comes to relationships. Give me a deeper sense of urgency when it comes to being about Your kingdom. Some things cannot be put off. Help me to be about them today… right now.
Amen
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THE RIVER WALK 
So true, later is probably much too late 🙂
We always think we have tomorrow, until tomorrow doesn’t come.
-Alan
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Sometimes our missed opportunity becomes the wake up call we need! Blessings.
Julia
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Procrastination can be costly. It’s better to act now than later. 📌
A serious question(or questions). What did those assignments and papers really get you besides having to spend time doing them? Are you really glad you did them? What are the benefits to having to do them? And I’m not talking about the master’s degree or any degree or the acceptance of a job because you had the degree. What in life did doing those papers get you? Real knowledge? Practice doing research? Learning to use a typewriter (showing my age) or a computer? Those are the possibilities I could come up with, but I have received those things and I didn’t have to do any assignments for a degree. So, what am I missing or not understanding, that I should pursue, in my life that doing those assignments and papers would get me? Is it indeed the understanding? The understanding of what?
Feel free to take your time. That was alot of questions – lol.
The papers are just a symptom of a bigger issue… procrastination. Reuben procrastinated and as a result, by the time he got around to rescuing Joseph, it was too late. For me, the procrastination results in less sleep, perhaps a worse grade, and most importantly, not putting in the time and effort to genuinely learn and share knowledge. For all of us, procrastination, giving in to the temptation to do the easy, the lazy, the more fun, etc. instead of grinding out the better but harder thing will cost us in ways we usually don’t even recognize. I mentioned later calling my brother (this was originally written a few years ago). Just recently he passed away so any delayed or missed phone calls would now be too late. The deeper question than “what value is in those papers?” would be, “What is lost when I procrastinate?”
As for those papers. The greatest value is the way they help me (or us) learn best by focusing our research and knowledge in a way that we now have to pass it on. Some of those papers have been published (or been the seed for later published articles), others have been a huge benefit in the Bible or philosophy classes I teach, and some… really were little more than a waste of time outside of that class. but you never know when what was learned in creating it might come in handy in some future situation.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I have read peoples’ research papers, so congrats on helping with getting information out there. Hopefully the “wasted time” ones will come in handy some day.
Hmm tomorrow very well might be too late.. but praise God for second chances. Reuben did get to meet his little brother. What they meant for evil, God made GOOD.
Loved this post. I too, am a serial porceastinaor. 🙏🫣
Actually, eating cereal is not something I procrastinate on often. It gets too soggy too quickly.
😜😂
Some very good food for thought. Thanks for sharing