Deadlines

I’m rushing today to complete an assignment for the DMin seminar I took last month. It is to be postmarked TODAY! There’s just something about a deadline that both comforts and disturbs me.

First, I find comfort in a deadline that is far away. I can wait and do it later. I don’t have to designate my time so rigidly. I am safe because I am not yet late turning in my paper.

On the other hand, I am disturbed by deadlines that are quickly approaching. I lose sleep. I don’t do my best work. I take time from my family. I binge eat and bite my nails.

I am 45 years old and have been in school a total of 30 years. You would think by now I would have learned and changed my ways. Instead, I continue down the same path that, honestly, started a long, long time ago. Old habits are hard to break.

The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Certainly, the verse applies to my desire to sin and my rejecting God’s ways. I am new and no longer desire sin – although I still sin – and I want to follow God’s ways – although I don’t always do it. But I have noticed a change in my life over the years as God’s Spirit has chipped away at the old Bob and brought out the new Me. And I like what I see.

I think the verse also applies to my procrastination regarding deadlines. But God’s Spirit will only change the parts of me that I give him access to. I don’t have a problem with procrastination – that’s just the symptom of a larger problem. I have a problem yielding all my life to God’s Spirit.

Maybe you do, too. Let’s pray that our hearts and minds will be completely open to the Spirit and willing to let him have his way in our lives.

 

Footnote: As I am writing this, I received a Twitter update from author Len Sweet. It said, “Deadlines are like bumper cars. They’re only fun I you hit them dead-on. (from Heather Wilson)”

 

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