Procrastinators
love company
There’s nothing I dread more than deadlines. Which is funny since my job as a TV producer depends on my getting things done on time. And I do.
But, maybe that’s why, when it comes to personal deadlines, I let them slide and then wallow in the accompanying guilt. The only comfort I’ve managed to find is the 99.5 percent of the population who are quite happy to commiserate about being late, too. The other half percent are accountants.
For procrastinators, being late is a way of life. For any personal event, we traditionally wait until the last minute to accomplish all that could have been done weeks ago.
Take the "day-before-the holiday-we-should’ve-shopped-earlier" supermarket crush, for example. For this recent national celebration, I was in typical form, frantically edging through crowded supermarket aisles. My mission was to purchase a close facsimile of a homemade pie.
As usual, when deadlines near and I’m stressed, I resort to prayer, whether it’s a TV script to write or tracking down a dessert that looks like I spent hours making it. On this particular marathon, a quick glance over my shoulder identified other shoppers in hot pursuit of the same item. For a brief moment I contemplated the power of unified prayer. And lo and behold, just ahead, there were still 692 pies on the shelf and just as many thankful shoppers.
Let’s face it, the store managers count on us to show up late every time to buy the abundance of pre-baked pies, pay the highest prices, and keep their faith in the human race. We’re the group who’ve never heard of early tax returns, Christmas letters mailed before July, or frozen turkeys that thaw anywhere but in the bath tub overnight. For us, it’s a life filled with excuses that we simply rationalize by telling anyone who will listen, which is usually the captive audience in the checkout line.
The only thing that worries me is that possibly we procrastinators are delaying things that hold far more importance than shopping or other personal deadlines. Perhaps, unknowingly, we’re procrastinating on the biggest assignment of all. And it comes from Above. Maybe we’ve heard God’s call to follow his path, but we’re putting off our decision until later when we can get around to it.
Thankfully, with God, he doesn’t give us a deadline for receiving his love. But the trouble with life is that we never know when our time will run out. For us procrastinators, that’s a forbidding thought. We always think there’ll be tomorrow.
I don’t know about you, but missing out on the greatest love of all is enough to make me plan ahead. It’s one deadline that we can’t afford to miss. And besides, I don’t want to be offering excuses in the final "checkout" line.