[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]
If you tend to procrastinate, you’re not alone. The word procrastinate has only been in the English language since the mid-16th century, but its Latin roots stretch back to the 1300s, and other iterations date all the way to antiquity. Around 800 B.C., the Greek poet Hesiod urged people not to “put your work off till tomorrow.” But of course we do this all the time. People tend to procrastinate in two ways: either they will make a to-do list and put the most important tasks at the end, right after “run 11 miles” and “scrub grout with a toothbrush,” or they will find other productive things to do and then focus on those tasks until they run out of time. I’m sure that some of you have taken on monumental endeavors, such as organizing the basement storage room or cleaning out the garage, in an effort to delay a major decision or overwhelming task. I know some college students who decided to test several quiche and cheesecake recipes during exam week. This, of course necessitated several trips to Meijer and a party for taste-testing. Recently, as I was studying for a foreign language exam, I found it necessary to paint the spare bedroom. The one in the basement that no one uses. And to replace window treatments, and rearrange all of my childrens’ toys and clean out their closets. You get the idea.
You don’t need a scientific study to tell you that procrastination is bad for you, but I’ll cite one anyway. Eric Jaffe (2013), a researcher for the Association for Psychological Science, writes that “people who procrastinate have higher levels of stress and lower well-being.” Delaying a task that we know we have to do is harmful in two important ways: it weakens resolve and it increases tension, making it more difficult to tackle the task we are putting of in the first place.
We put off all sorts of small tasks on a regular basis, such as exercise or responding to an email, but what about the big tasks? Some of you may be familiar with the story of “Daniel in the Lion’s Den,” in which King Darius is tricked into tossing Daniel into a pit where he is left to be eaten by ferocious lions. In the morning, after a sleepless night, King Darius rushes back to the den to see if Daniel’s God has protected him, and indeed Daniel’s life had been spared. Daniel reports back that an angel of God shut the mouths of the lions, and thus he had passed the night unharmed.
This may be a familiar story for some of us, but familiar or not, it’s easy to overlook the important details of obedience to God’s big ask on Daniel’s life, and his ask on our lives, too. Long before the Lion’s Den story, Daniel arrived in Babylon as a result of King Nebuchadnezzar’s victory over Jerusalem. Daniel was an Israelite living in a foreign country, and his life was spared because he showed promise as one who might be useful to the king. Immediately when Daniel arrives in Babylon he is told to follow the customs of the Babylonians, including the worship of false gods.
But Daniel refused.
The language used in the Bible is this: Daniel resolved.
He resolved to be faithful. He resolved to be honest. He resolved to be holy.
And then God acted. God gave Daniel wisdom, courage, hope, and life.
Perhaps God is asking you to do something today. Perhaps he laid a task on your heart long ago, or maybe there’s a recent idea that you can’t seem to shake. A job change, a new hobby, a new habit, a conversation, the beginning or ending of a relationship. Perhaps you’ve been delaying obedience to this call because you’re afraid. Afraid that you don’t have what it takes, afraid of what others might think, afraid to trade the comfortable for the unknown. Daniel, as a newcomer to a foreign land, as a religious and cultural outsider, had no political capital to burn by denying the king’s request. And yet, he resolved.
Daniel knew that delayed obedience was disobedience, but he also knew that if he obeyed God’s call, that God would equip him for the task at hand. God worked miracles in Daniel’s life, and God bestowed wisdom and courage to Daniel. And we are armed with the knowledge that God has already defeated our worry and fear through the death of his son, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus we can accomplish the impossible. If we resolve to complete the work that God has laid on our hearts, then we can trust God to act. It’s one of his many promises to us.
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