Procrastination and Christianity often go hand in hand...
What a lot of people either don't understand or indirectly understand is that Christianity isn't easy... It is considered the "narrow road" for a reason. Because living as such IS NOT EASY. Day in and day out I struggle with this thing called "Faith". Let me give you a few examples of some other things that are hard (for me at least) : writing huge papers, studying for mid-terms and final exams, having confrontational talks with people, and waking up in the mornings. Now, besides being hard for me to do, what else do all of these things have in common? I procrastinate on them... I will wait until the last night to write any papers, I will wait until 3:00 in the morning to start studying for a test, I will put off having "tough" talks for weeks if not months, and I will snooze through my alarm up until THE last moment possible before I have to race out of bed and into the shower. Sometimes we tend to procrastinate on the things in life which are hard for us to do...
As I mentioned, Christianity and enacting your faith is certainly something that is hard to do. We fail at it no matter how hard we try because in the end we are merely imperfect humans living in a corrupted world. Christianity means sacrificing things such as money (material goods), it means fleeing from sexual immorality, and it basically entitles us to live a life "not socially normal" or like the rest. As we look around at things like our neighbors huge TV and our friends that hook up with a different girl every week, it is hard not to look at Christianity as this HARD and not necessarily fun life style. Trust me I see the glamor and the enticement of everything this world has to offer, and I fall into the trap all the time. Christianity is not easy.... Especially if you live out Jesus' true calling for his people. Throw the topic of my last blog into this whole "mess" and it just gets that much harder. To live a life that isn't half baked and to pursuit a genuine relationship with Jesus day in and day out means even that much more work!
When you realize that God doesn't just call you to accept him and "sort of" follow him but rather to give him all or nothing... All of a sudden hard isn't even a qualified word, we need words like grueling and problematic. The bottom line is this: In this world (this country especially), the idea of Christianity is so counter intuitive, such an opposite way of thinking, and such an opposite and "inconvenient" way of living that it is no wonder no one wants to do it and pursuit it entirely!
This of course is the wrong way of thinking, but we can all relate. The key things to understand and try and wrap your head are these: God has no sense of time, and God offers a far greater gift in heaven for an eternity.
-God really has no sense of time, it sounds like I am making fun of him or making him out to be that person that is always late. But its sort of true. God gave us "time" and our sense of duration, therefore he is timeless. Therefore he is not subject to our laws of time, because he created them. 70-80 years to us seems like FOREVER, but to him its just a blink of an eye, he is working with a different unit of time: Eternity. And that is how long we have to spend with him (God willing that is).
-No matter what the cost in this lifetime, and no matter how "sucky" it may seem to be Christian the gift of eternity in Heaven will be worth it all. If we truly call ourselves Christians and truly believe in a God, than we must know and understand that any sacrifices we must make in this lifetime will be worth it in the end!
Here is the big picture
I titled this "No, Can't Wait Until Tomorrow" because I relate to and struggle with the fact that Christianity is hard. I personally identify each and every one of the difficulties this religion presents me with and I have this tendency to put things on hold. I tell myself "I will start being that person another day." I think we all are guilty of this... Procrastination with our faith gives us this fall sense of justification, this false sense of thinking that we are better people deep inside. Procrastination in the sense of our religion makes us content because we are believing and hoping in this greater person that we "will become".
Wake up Anthony! There are two things I MUST come to grips with...
1) Just because I tell myself I am going to write that paper later, or have that difficult conversation later; doesn't mean it necessarily is going to happen. And sometimes when I hit the snooze on the alarm too many times I end up never waking up... What makes me think my procrastination tendencies are going to be any different when it comes to faith?
2) When it comes to something as serious as enacting my faith, procrastination and waiting until tomorrow only opens the door for a dangerous possibility. Maybe there won't be a tomorrow... Everyone is faced with death, I think we all see at some point just how fragile life really is. Even if I do truly plan on getting around to all of these "faith things", the truth is I may never get the chance. I play a sport where I let people throw a hard ball at me at 90mph, I drive a 7,000 lb. car at 70 mph every day on my way to school, and then four or five times a year I strap myself into a man made flying machine that moves 600mph through the air miles and miles above the ground....
I man named Jerry Schemmel, a well known Christian speaker and author, was suppose to be my college baseball coach when I was first recruited. Because of this I was given the chance to at least hear his testimony. To make a long story short he was a part of a devastating airplane crash some many years ago. He witnessed first hand how quickly lives can be taken. He now goes around telling everyone that NOW is the time to come to Christ, because life is short. For those of us who are already Christ followers, I take that one step further...
Now is the time to start entirely dedicating your life to Christ (no more half baked faith), because life truly is a fragile thing. If that day where you have to sit in front of God ever came unpredictably early... I don't want to regret having ever told myself "God I will put you off until later..."
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