It was with some measure of relief that I recently read a report of some studies of procrastination.  It estimated that less than ten percent of the population have never had problems with procrastination and some twenty percent of the population have serious procrastination issues affecting their ability to function well.  That makes me feel a little better.  I’ve had my battles with procrastination – but then it seems, so has more than ninety percent of the population.

Procrastination happens in all sorts of ways.  We put off doing the ironing... or the weeding in the garden.  We stall on the inevitable visit to the dentist... or that trip to the mechanic to get the car’s water pump fixed.  Sooner or later reality hits home and we find we can no longer postpone things.  Our supply of already ironed shirts has run out... the flowers have become invisible behind the weeds... that tooth now aches with every bite... and the car’s leaking water pump now means refilling the radiator almost daily.  Events do catch up with us so that we can no longer postpone what has to be done.  Procrastination inevitably tends to catch us out.

But procrastination happens in more serious areas of life than ironing and weeding, dental care and car maintenance.  When it comes to the things of God people often postpone things too.  “I’ll help out in the church in a few years’ time; right now I’m too busy climbing up the corporate ladder.”  “I’ve been thinking of helping out with that youth program but I first want to add another diploma to my résumé.”  The problem is that too often ‘tomorrow never comes’.  The chap who was too busy as a young man to help out with a church Boys Club is often the same guy who at fifty is still too busy to serve on a church’s Committee of Management.  The woman who, as a young lady, had other priorities than teaching Sunday School is often the one who, at middle age, still has other priorities than helping out with a ladies’ fellowship event at the church.

An area where all of this becomes ever so much more serious is in our relationship with God.  Over the years I have met young men and women who do believe there is a God and who know that they should do something about that.  But they postpone the decision.  “I’ll sort that out when I get older.”  I wish I had a hundred bucks for every time I’ve encountered that attitude.  The sad part is that here too, all too often, ‘tomorrow never comes’.  There are those who get to the evening of their life and they still put off sorting out their relationship with God.  Many step into eternity with that decision still waiting to be made.  At that point reality has caught up with them... but sadly, too late.

There are some things you ought to remember if you’re postponing sorting out your relationship with God until you get older.

First, you may not get older.  Sorry to hit you with that bad news – but the sad reality is that some people die young.

Second, postponement (procrastination!) tends to become habit forming.  There are those who have been putting it off all their life and who are still putting it off.  They are planning an ‘eleventh hour conversion’.  But people like that often die at five minutes to eleven.

Thirdly, for many people a time comes when they are no longer able to make the decision they postponed most of their life.  A stroke, or a disease like Alzheimer’s, robs us of the faculties we need to make the crucial choices that the Bible calls us to make.

And for me that’s the really sad thing.  As a pastor I’ve sat beside many a death-bed over the years.  I’ve seen some step into eternity with confidence and hope because they knew they were going to be with their Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.  But I’ve also seen the despair and the fear in the eyes of others who had failed to sort out their relationship to Jesus but who could no longer make the necessary connections,

When it comes to our relationship with God, procrastination is a very dangerous game to play.  The Bible says: Today is the day of salvation.

John Westendorp