An Old View of Procrastination (Part 1)

I hope you’re sitting; I have something very shocking to tell you.

I sometimes procrastinate.

I can hear you gasping in disbelief, but I assure you, it’s true. In fact, there have been times when I creatively seek ways (and reasons) to procrastinate. You do too, don’t you. (I know I didn’t put a question mark there; it was rhetorical. I already know the answer.)

God doesn’t procrastinate. In Ezekiel 12:25, He says “I will say the word and what I say I will do; it will not be delayed.” So what do we do?

There’s a great example in Exodus. In chapter 8, we pick up with Pharaoh and his problem. The Hebrews had been in captivity for years, and God sent Moses to give Pharaoh an ultimatum. Well, Pharaoh wasn’t particularly motivated to cooperate at first, so God sent a series of plagues. The second one was the plague of frogs.

This doesn’t sound particularly devastating, but I like how this reads from the Contemporary English Version – this is verses 3-5. It says “the Nile will be full of frogs, and from there they will spread into the royal palace, including the king’s bedroom and even his bed. Frogs will enter homes and find their way into ovens and into the bowls of bread dough. Frogs will be crawling on everyone.” You couldn’t take a step without squishing a frog.

So finally Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and asked them to pray to their God to take away the frogs. And Moses said, sure, fine, when do you want me to do that? Just name the time, Pharaoh, and the frogs will be gone.

And what was Pharaoh’s response? Do it tomorrow. Frogs on the throne, frogs in his hair, frogs all over everything, but no rush, do it tomorrow.

Sometimes the problem is, if you sleep with frogs long enough, anything you’re with long enough, the thing begins to get comfortable to you.

There comes a point when you lay there in the middle of the night and you are wondering to yourself, “I wonder if I can live without these frogs. I know these frogs. They know me. They might even like me. I am not alone as long as I have these frogs.”

Obviously, that’s the kind of statement that makes your family and neighbors question your sanity. So you know something has to change. You don’t see how you could be personally responsible, so you pray for help. “I guess I need to get rid of these frogs, Lord, so if you could just do that for me…tomorrow….”

It is no accident that there’s a fairy tale about a frog who turned into a prince. Some people are still looking at frogs they kissed those frogs years ago. Well, you can kiss a frog all you want, but that doesn’t make it a prince.