Church Corner

A young person in my church has a shirt that says, “Procrastinators Unite Tomorrow.” The shirt always makes me smile because I can identify with it. There are times in my life where that quote would have been my quote. I’d like to think that as I’ve gotten older and more “mature” this statement is less true about me.

In my professional life I try very hard to make sure that everything is done as quickly and proficiently as possible. I do my best to get information where it needs to be, return phone calls in a timely fashion, and make certain that I’m not late for meetings. I set alarms on my phone and computer with due dates and times to assist in this endeavor. In short, I am thinking, “I’m doing OK, I’m not procrastinating anymore.”

Like most times in my life when I think I’m doing really well in an area that has been a weakness, I start to get a little swagger in my step. I am thinking, “I’ve got it nailed!” Then God gives me a wake-up call. This week I was out to lunch with a couple of guys who grew up in my youth ministry. We were eating, laughing and joking around; talking about where we all ended up years later. Then we started teasing each other about silly things from the past.

They both laughed and talked about how I would put things off or about those things I didn’t follow though with. They laughed and I laughed too but it stung a little. After lunch I got in my truck and headed to the office thinking, “It is good that I’ve dealt with these issues in my life.”

The next day, my son came up to me after I got home from work. He had a book in his hand that he had been begging me to read to him. Over the last week I had put him off several times. I had legitimate “grown up” reasons why I couldn’t read at that exact moment. But there were other times when I was being lazy and just didn’t want to read. On this particular day I was in one of my moods where I didn’t really want to read the book to him and started to put him off again.

He cut me off and said, “yeah, yeah dad, you cant right now but that’s what you always say.”

Needless to say it was like I had taken 10 steps backward. In my work and professional life I had become better at not putting things off but at home with my own children, I was allowing myself to slide.

Well, I grabbed the book from him, sat down and started reading.

Before we were done with the book my other two children where sitting next to me and on top of me listening to the story. This little moment in time led to several hours of reading stories, playing video games together and watching upcoming movie trailers online. We all had a great time.

Recently, I was involved with a memorial for a teenage suicide. I was fairly judgmental in my attitude toward the parents. The young person was in need of counseling and real help. When talking with this young person’s mom she mentioned that she was going to take her child to get help at the end of the month. I walked away feeling self-righteous thinking, “This wouldn’t happen to us. I’d follow through with my kids.”

Now I’m wondering, “Would I have followed through with my kids or would I have put it off for one more day?” I’m writing this as a reminder to all of us that our families are our first priorities in life. When we stand before the lord at the judgment seat I doubt he’s going to ask about how many hours I sat at my desk doing my job but he will probably ask, “Where are your children?”