Procrastination

Polish golfer Adrian Meronk stood over his second shot on the 18th hole of a pro tournament on March 3rd, 2024 and saw another opportunity to climb up the leaderboard. A late birdie in the final round would see him take home an even richer payday from the lucrative event.

But the time Meronk spent mulling that shot turned out to be extraordinarily costly.

Meronk’s birdie was changed to a par after he was assessed a one-stroke penalty for violating the pace of play policy. LIV Golf said that Meronk’s group, which included Masters champion Jon Rahm, had already been warned by a rules official for lagging behind. Then, on that shot on the 18th hole, Meronk was timed at over two minutes, exceeding the time allowed.

That proved to be hugely consequential. Had his original score stood, Meronk would have tied for fifth place with Rahm at 11-under and won $750,000 in prize money at LIV’s tournament in Saudi Arabia. Instead, Meronk ended up in a six-way tie for sixth and won $508,750—a loss of $241,250.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In a similar way, the pace of life these days is so fast and furious that it feels like we’re not keeping up, going faster and faster, will have dire consequences on our lives.

Cameron Perrin, a 26-year-old software engineer, talks about his experience with the productivity hack known as "monk mode:"

As a person who can easily fall into procrastination and a lack of focus, I found myself constantly struggling to achieve my goals — and I couldn't afford to be so distracted. Every workday, I would start strong but would soon get derailed by scrolling social media, reading articles, or just aimlessly browsing the Internet. By the time I caught myself, my train of thought would be gone and I'd have to spend five minutes just figuring out where I left off.

Then I came across an article about "monk mode," which is a method for giving your full attention to whatever you are working on for a set period of time. (The article describes “monk mode” as adopting the isolation and self-discipline practices of monks).

I began by committing to two-hour blocks of monk mode at a time. I eliminated as many distractions as I could. I turned off my phone notifications and blocked social-media sites on my laptop since I knew I was spending way too much time on these activities. I calculated I was (wasting) one to two hours a day. And when factoring in the time it would take to refocus and pick up where I left off, it was roughly three hours of time wasted.

To help maximize my results with the technique, I created a strict routine. The night before each workday, I made a list of the tasks I needed to accomplish the next day and set a time frame for how long I would commit to “monk mode.” Then I woke up at 5 a.m., had coffee, read my Bible, and then entered “monk mode” to begin tackling that list.

“Monk mode” changed my life by showing me how powerful my time really is when I'm disciplined and sticking to a routine. By eliminating distractions, I was able to dramatically increase my work productivity and truly enjoy my downtime.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This technique is not only important for a career, but it can also apply to our spiritual life. Distractions can easily divert us when we are trying to read the Bible and pray. Intentionally isolating ourselves from the phone, internet, social media, and other interruptions can help us focus and enhance our time with God.

Do you realize that 30 percent of all men of working age in this culture are not working? There are many reasons for this. Some workers lack the skills needed for all but the lowest-paid jobs. Some jobs have been eliminated because of technology advances or cheaper overseas labor. Some have discovered government benefits that enable them to avoid working.

A study for the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, reports that “75 percent of inactive prime-age men are in a household that received some form of government transfer payment.” The researcher believes that government disability benefits in particular are one reason for the lack of interest in work.

Another trend toward irresponsibility is the growth of the video-gaming culture in our society. Many young men and women are spending countless hours every day or many hours of the night just gaming away. They may lose sleep, college opportunities, and work advancement with addictions to meaningless competitions that consume time and energy but produce nothing.

Possible Preaching Angle:

What would you call a pastime where a person spends all their time, all their money, all their resources, pursuing things that are not real and that never will benefit them or society? We would call it slavery. And those who are enslaved by such meaningless pursuits ultimately lose all respect for themselves. Work gives us dignity, because work itself is dignified.

Worldwide, 60 million people die annually from any or all causes. That's about two deaths every second. In his most recent book, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson asks whether it is good and preferable for human beings to potentially live forever:

It's better to be alive than dead. Though more often than not, we take being alive for granted. The question remains, if you could live forever, would you? To live forever is to have all the time in the world to do anything you ever wanted.

Knowing that we will die may force us to live fuller lives:

If you live forever, then what's the hurry? Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? There is perhaps no greater de-motivating force than the knowledge you will live forever. If true, then knowledge of your mortality may also be a force unto life itself - the urge to achieve, and the need to express love and affection now, not later. Mathematically, if death gives meaning to life, then to live forever is to live a life with no meaning at all. For these reasons death may be more important to our state of mind than we are willing to recognize.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sin brought a curse (Gen. 3:16-19) and our current fallen state (Rom. 3:10). God did not want us to live forever in that condition (Gen. 3:22). Christ came to give us eternal life so that we might live forever in heaven, renewed and restored (1 Cor. 15:46-49).

They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But for one doctor, the cost of lacking such prevention is much more costly. In fact, it’s costing people their lives. Dr. Brytney Cobia is at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, and she’s been treating coronavirus patients, some who are vaccinated, and some who aren’t. The difference between those who make it and those who don’t is as obvious as it is heartbreaking. She said,

I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.

As of July (2021), the state of Alabama had the lowest vaccination rate of the nation, with only about 33% of its residents fully vaccinated. Because of the rise of the virus’ Delta variant, Alabama hospitals are experiencing a dramatic surge in COVID-related hospital visits. And according to Dr. Cobia, deathly sickness in someone’s inner circle is the only thing that will get some folks to consider taking the vaccine.

A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.

They cry. And they tell me they didn't know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn't get as sick. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can't. So, they thank me, and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write the death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Lives are damaged and even lost when people choose a convenient untruth instead of an inconvenient truth. Some refuse to take heed until the danger is imminent, but by then it's often too late to do anything meaningful. The time to act with prudence is before the danger overwhelms. 2) In the spiritual realm people also procrastinate making a decision for salvation and it threatens their eternal destiny.

Leonardo da Vinci is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. As an artist, he is known for The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa among others. However, his total output in painting is really rather small. There are less than 17 surviving paintings that can be definitely attributed to him, and several of them are unfinished.

The small number of surviving paintings is due in part to his chronic procrastination. He often required a sharp threat by his patrons that they were about to withhold payment to motivate him. The Mona Lisa took over 15 years for him to finish. Worse was The Virgin of the Rocks, commissioned with a seven-month deadline. Da Vinci finished it 25 years later. Da Vinci apologized on his deathbed "to God and Man for leaving so much undone."

Possible Preaching Angle:

God calls his people to build his kingdom--to transform people in the name of Jesus. However, many of us procrastinate. Other “more important” things get in the way. There will come a day when we may look back upon our lives with regret for the things left unfinished.

In October of 2019, Bert terHart boarded a 40’ ocean fairing sailboat and set sail from Victoria, BC. His objective was to become the first North American to ever circumnavigate the globe solo, using only a sextant, pen, paper, and almanac for navigation. On July 28, 2020, after 267 days at sea, he sailed back into Victoria having accomplished his goal.

While on the open seas, he faced extreme weather, regular 12’ to 14’ ocean swells, unforeseen ship repairs, and severe sleep deprivation. But in spite of these dangers, he was dubbed “the safest man on earth.”

When terHart set sail, we had never heard of Covid-19 (or words like "social distancing," "flatten the curve," "shelter-in-place,” or “self-quarantine”). And while he was on the open ocean, terHart was safe from all of it.

In a recent interview with Travel+Leisure, terHart described what he hoped to accomplish by his journey; “I wanted to inspire people to take that first step forward. … Once you take that first step, the next step is easier, and the step after that becomes easier."

Possible Preaching Angle:

Following God often means a journey into uncertain seas. This often puts us into a posture of procrastination. We delay for a season as we wait to feel more certain, and safer. Take the first step forward. The next step will be easier and the step after that easier still. You are never safer than when in the will of God, in fact, you are "the safest man (or woman) on earth."

The Italians have a legend about a woman named Befana who lived along the dusty road that led to Bethlehem. She was her village’s best housekeeper. Meticulous. Which was no small task with all that dust. Late one night there was a knock at the door and she opened it to find three kings in search of the baby born to be King of the Jews, the Prince of Peace. Frankly, what she also saw was all the dust that blew in and the dirt on their boots and clothes.

They asked to rest awhile and invited her to join them on their journey. And she said she’d love to do that but she had to get the house back in order after they left, and there was a load of laundry to be done. “Let me finish up,” she said, “then I’ll be right behind you.” And they told her all she had to do was follow the star.

She worked all night and finally, near dawn, she put on her heavy cloak. She took a little straw doll she wanted to give to the baby, and left her house—spic and span. But the sky had clouded over and she couldn’t see the star. It began to rain and her little doll was ruined. Finally, she gave up and went home. “I’m a foolish old woman,” she said to herself. “I missed my chance to worship the newborn Prince of Peace. Perhaps I will find him someday.”

So the legend is that each year she sets out with a bag of toys, leaving some at every house where there is a child, in hopes one of them might be the Child she missed.

In his book, Dan Ariely talks about our tendency to be dishonest when we're in a tough spot. John Ortberg expounds on it in his book, Soul Keeping:

Ariely's book clearly gives empirical verification for what you and I know happens all the time. Here is a tiny example I hope you cannot relate to: Ariely says, "Over the course of many years of teaching, I have noticed that there typically seems to be a rash of deaths among students' relatives at the end of the semester. It happens mostly in the week before final exams and before papers are due." Guess which relative most often dies? Grandma. I am not making this stuff up.

[Another research study] has shown that grandmothers are ten times more likely to die before a midterm and nineteen times more likely to die before a final exam. Worse, grandmothers of students who are not doing well in class are at even higher risk. Students who are failing are fifty times more likely to lose Grandma than non-failing students. It turns out that the greatest predictor of mortality among senior citizens in our day ends up being their grandchildren's GPAs. The moral of all this is, if you are a grandparent, do not let your grandchild go to college. It'll kill you, especially if he or she is intellectually challenged.

Researchers are tracking down a cure for something that has been plaguing students and workers alike for centuries—procrastination. Psychologists Daphna Oyserman and Neil Lewis recently published a study on the way we view deadlines. Their research suggests that if someone thinks of an upcoming deadline in terms of days rather than weeks, months, or years, the goal seems closer, and that will spur people to act quicker.

According to the article: "And when the events needing our attention are perceived to happen sooner, people are more motivated to take action. In the study, test subjects were more likely to plan to start saving money sooner when told they were retiring in 10,950 days than if they were told they were retiring in 30 years—even though they're pondering the exact same amount of time." Daphna Oyserman added, "Even when it's a lot of days—6,000, 9,000, 14,000 days away—people focus on the unit, not the number."

Possible Preaching Angle:

So, the question remains, what are you waiting for? Or perhaps we could remember the Psalmist's prayer, "Teach us to number our days" (Ps. 90:12).

To illustrate the paralysis of indecision, international speaker Michael Ramsden tells the story of three turtles who went off to a picnic. One turtle packed sandwiches, another provided the drinks, and the third one simply came along for company. As the turtles headed off into the woods, about halfway to their destination it started to rain so they took shelter under a large rock and began talking amongst themselves.

The first two turtles turned to the third and said, "Look, we made the sandwiches, we made the drinks, you brought nothing, so you should be the one to go home and get the umbrella's. Get some umbrella's, come back here, we'll go on into the woods and we'll have our picnic."

The third turtle said, "You must be joking. As soon as I'm around the corner you're going to eat the food, you're going to drink the drinks, and when I come back with the umbrella's there will be nothing left."

The first two turtles said, "We will do no such thing."

The third turtle said, "You absolutely will. There's no way I'm doing that." Eventually the first two turtles swear on their shells that they will not eat the sandwiches or drink the drinks until the third turtle comes back with the umbrellas.

So the third turtle leaves. Minutes go by. Minutes become hours, hours become days. On the tenth day the first turtle says to the second turtle, "Okay how about it, why don't we just eat the sandwiches and drink the drink?" As soon as the first turtle says this a voice from behind a rock says, "If you do I won't get the umbrellas!"

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Leaders; Leadership; Decisions—Leaders who are people who need to make decisions. (2) Procrastination; Salvation—Perhaps you are putting off making an important decision, like accepting Christ, turning from sin, joining the church, and so forth.

It's no secret that procrastination has a high price tag: it costs money, it undermines relationships, and it lowers job performance. In recent years, numerous psychologists have studied the prevalence and consequences of procrastination. The following facts provide an overview of some of the more interesting findings about this research:

• About 15-20 percent of adults are regular procrastinators.
• About 80-95 percent of college students are considered procrastinators.
• Many Americans don't have enough money for their retirement because of putting off saving during their working life.
• The Oregon Health and Science University tested several thousand people's level of cholesterol. Of the 19,800 who tested for high cholesterol, 35 percent did not see a doctor for at least 5 months.
• A University of Windsor in Ontario study found that procrastinators had higher stress levels and more household accidents than non-procrastinators.
• The vast majority of procrastinators—95 percent—want to end their habit but can't. One psychologist said: "Habits become non-conscious brain processes. When procrastination becomes chronic, a person is essentially running on autopilot."

When you get a chance to be saved, you gotta grab it.

—Bear Grylls, popular star of the Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild, in a commercial promoting the Alpha Course

I read a story in the L. A. Times a long time ago. A guy goes to the house where he grew up and knocks on the door. Because he hadn't been there for 20 years, he finds himself getting sentimental. He asks the owners if he can walk through the house, and they let him. While in the attic, he finds an old jacket of his. He puts it on, reaches into the pocket, and pulls out a stub. It's a receipt from a shoe repair shop. He realizes he had taken a pair of shoes there twenty years ago, and in the midst of the move, he had never picked them up. On a whim he decides to go to the shoe repair shop. Just to be funny, he takes the receipt out and hands it to the guy behind the desk, saying, "Are my shoes ready?" The guy goes back to the workroom for a minute, comes back to the counter, and says, "Come back a week from Thursday."

That's the mind of the sluggard; they're always saying, "A week from Thursday."

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."

—Henry Ford (1863–1947)

It is said that Satan once called to him the emissaries of hell and said he wanted to send one of them to earth to aid women and men in the ruination of their souls. He asked which one would want to go. One creature came forward and said, "I will go." Satan said, "If I send you, what will you tell the children of men?" He said, "I will tell the children of men that there is no heaven." Satan said, "They will not believe you, for there is a bit of heaven in every human heart. In the end everyone knows that right and good must have the victory. You may not go."

Then another came forward, darker and fouler than the first. Satan said, "If I send you, what will you tell the children of men?" He said, "I will tell them there is no hell." Satan looked at him and said, "Oh, no; they will not believe you, for in every human heart there's a thing called conscience, an inner voice which testifies to the truth that not only will good be triumphant, but that evil will be defeated. You may not go."

Then one last creature came forward, this one from the darkest place of all. Satan said to him, "And if I send you, what will you say to women and men to aid them in the destruction of their souls?" He said, "I will tell them there is no hurry." Satan said, "Go!"

Gordon MacDonald writes:

As a seminarian, I was asked to write and deliver a paper to a special forum of students and faculty. Typical for me, I put off writing the paper until the deadline loomed and then cut two days of classes to complete the assignment. When I had finished reading the paper and the audience had responded with applause and left the auditorium, a professor whose classes I'd dodged in order to write the paper found me and said, "Gordon, that was a good paper, but it lacked the possibility of greatness. Do you want to know why?"

I could hardly say no, and so he continued. "You sacrificed your routine responsibilities to write it," he said. "Your ministry will not be successful if you make this sort of a thing a habit."

You listen carefully to an insight like that when it comes from a man 40 years your senior whom you respect. He was less interested in the content of my presentation than he was the character pattern that framed its writing. The paper would soon be forgotten (I can't remember anything about it now), but the work habits it revealed would continue the rest of my life if I didn't alter them.

He saw this; I did not. His rebuke caused me to reform my work ethic.

I never wear a watch, because I always know it's now—and now is when you should do it.

Repentance is always difficult, and the difficulty grows still greater by delay.