A few months ago, I received a Meal Train notification for some friends of mine who were faced with a sudden bout of sickness. I was going to participate. I meant to. But I got distracted, and by the time I remembered again, a couple of weeks later, it was over. Now don’t worry, my friends didn’t miss any meals. There were plenty of other people who brought them food. But I missed an opportunity to do good to some people I care about.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Whatever I do in the Lord, for his gospel or for his children, will not be forgotten (1 Corinthians 15:58). At the same time, however, the Scripture is very clear; it’s what I do that counts. Not what I was going to do but didn’t.
Does that sound harsh? I’m afraid it’s going to get worse. Whenever I don’t do something that I genuinely have the ability to do, it’s because there’s something else – or possibly several somethings – that is a higher priority for me. That’s true whether the something else is taking my wife to the hospital, or watching funny pet videos. Whatever it is I actually did with my time was a higher priority than any of the things I could have done, but didn’t. That might be legitimate (the hospital), or it might not be (pet videos). This is why James can write:
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them (James 5:17).
Ouch.
The Old Testament, too, warns about this:
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you” – when you already have it with you (Proverbs 3:27-28).
All of the devotions I write serve first of all as reminders to myself, but this one is needed more than most. It’s much too easy for me to deceive myself and forget just how often something that’s put off until later ends up not being done at all. Unfortunately, the devil doesn’t forget.
Surprisingly, there is also an upside to my tendency to put things off, and that is, that it can be used for good as well. Whenever I’m tempted to do something I shouldn’t, I find that if I just put if off until later, I usually end up not doing it. It turns out that procrastination works the same way for bad motives as it does for good ones. And one of the most effective tools for resisting sin and living a life pleasing to God is simply to learn when to say, “not now, I’m too busy.”
The real secret, then, is not that I must never put anything off until later, it’s that I should be wise about what I put off and what I don’t. The good needs to be done right away, as soon as I have the chance, so that I won’t get distracted and forget. The sin can wait. And if I get distracted and forget about doing it altogether, I’ll be okay with that.