Why Wait Until Tomorrow?
Are you a person who lives by the adage, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today” or do you flip that around and say, “Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow”?
We live in a world of procrastinators. Cats never seem to be in any hurry to do anything; the same can sometimes be said of us. Have you ever waited until the night before an assignment is due to begin working on it? You need to get a colonoscopy but you keep putting it off. Several days ago I walked by the card store while doing errands and it was full of men, many with panicked looks on their faces, scrambling to find a Valentine’s Day card. You keep finding better things to do than wash windows. You put off calling a loved one until one day it is too late.
Pablo Picasso once said, “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” We live in a world of procrastinators. The word procrastinate comes from the Latin verb “procrastinare” which means deferred until tomorrow. Most of us eventually do the things we need to do, we just seem to usually put them off or wait until the last minute.
When God calls upon us to do something, He expects us to respond immediately, in His timing, not when it fits our schedule. Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is. Delayed obedience is really nothing more than disobedience. In Genesis 17, when God made a covenant with Abraham, promising to “greatly increase your numbers,” He also asked Abraham to also keep a covenant of circumcising every male in his household (see Gen 17:1-14). How did Abraham respond? He could have waited until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to call the doctor’s office to schedule the procedures, but here is what we read in 17:23 – “On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.”
When Jesus visited Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew as they were fishing, He invited them to become his disciples. In Matthew 4:19 we see Jesus say, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” Did the two men ask to go home and think about it for a few days before giving Jesus an answer? You be the judge; here is what we read in v.20 – “At once they left their nets and followed him.” In the very next verse we see Jesus also invite James and John to join Him, and they too “immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.”
It might be okay to procrastinate completing an assignment, washing the windows, buying your sweetheart a card, or even scheduling that uncomfortable medical test, but when it comes to responding to God, the only way to be obedient is to obey Him completely and without delay.
What is God calling you to do that you keep putting off?