I’m procrastinating today! My todo list is full of all kinds of routine Saturday tasks and a few special tasks. Preparing our income tax is one special task with helping two of our children file their taxes. I know it’s late in the season and yet I procrastinate.
I procrastinate with the best of them by surfing the web. I really do need to review that list of the latest accessories for my computer. Shuffling papers on my desk is another tactic I use. I’ve moved the Christmas cards we received last December more times than I can count, promising to reply ---oh just any day now. Grabbing something to eat is another fond procrastinating devices I use.
Bob McCarty, at the NFCYM workshop yesterday said, our culture encourages us to live fast and not deep. He continued saying that living fast is a form of blindness. Because of the fast pace of our lives we do not see the poverty, sickness, or violence that fill our world.
If the fast pace of my life is anything like traveling down I-80 at 75 miles per hour I know I miss a lot that I might see if I were to walk. Yet even when I’m able to slow down my procrastination strategies rescue me from a deeper reflection on my life. I will do anything to avoid a fuller and deeper reflection on my life.
My Lenten practices are the antidote to procrastination and the speed at which I’m accustomed to living. At this moment I think it’s working. In prayer the blur surrounding my life becomes clearer. I have time for prayer because I’m not raiding the snack table in our kitchen for a handful of that trail mix I like so much. I have the courage to look more deeply into my life because of Easter’s promise of new life. For another day I will pause to pray.
”The Lord is kind and merciful.” (Ps 103:8a)