Facing the Giant of Procrastination
Acts 24:22–27
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In this lesson we discover the dangers of putting off until tomorrow what should be done today.
OVERVIEW
Years ago, a very famous preacher surveyed the Bible to discover the most important words in Scripture. For instance, he wanted to find the saddest word in the Bible, the happiest word, and the most emotional word—along with a long list of additional words which were the superlatives in their category. When he came to the most dangerous word in the Bible you might be surprised to know what he chose: Tomorrow. That’s right—tomorrow. Tomorrow is the most dangerous word because of its ability to rob dreamers of their dreams. It has robbed students of their educational opportunities and fathers of their relationships with their children. More than anything, it has kept more people from coming to Christ and finding salvation than any other word in the dictionary.
Satan’s favorite word is “tomorrow.” If he can get someone to keep putting off thinking about his salvation until tomorrow, he has them right where he wants them. He uses tomorrow like the owner of the gas station who put a sign up that said, “Free gas tomorrow.” Every time you look at the sign it puts you off one more day. “Today” is the word that is dear to the heart of God, as in “… today is the day to be saved!” (II Corinthians 6:2, Today’s English Version).
In this lesson we’re going to meet the giant of procrastination. It was active in the life of a Roman official named Felix whose story we find in Acts 24:22–27. Felix, and his wife Drusilla, missed the opportunity for salvation because of procrastination. Through them we will discover the dangers of procrastination and how to defeat it.
Procrastination Robs You of Opportunities for Service
Jesus was talking to some of His followers once about the cost of discipleship. The essence of His words to them was that life has a way of putting obstacles in the path of the one who would seek first the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:59–62). Things such as taking care of family and the requirements of vocation are legitimate responsibilities. Was Jesus saying we should ignore those things in order to follow Him?
Of course not. He was simply illustrating that it’s always easy to think of lots of reasons why we “can’t” respond to the call of God in our life. Once we take care of all those details, we think, then we’ll get serious about following Christ.
Matthew 26 relates one of the saddest stories in the New Testament of a missed opportunity that could never be retrieved. Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal and arrest. He took Peter, James, and John into the garden with Him. Three times Jesus went aside to pray and three times discovered that His three friends had fallen asleep. They couldn’t have known of the historical significance of what was happening at that moment. But we can be sure that later they would have given anything to replay the events of that night. They would have wanted to stay awake and watch and pray for their Lord in His hour of agony. But they let one of the most critical nights in history pass them by.
One day in heaven each of us will no doubt look back and realize critical moments and hours of decision which we let slip through our fingers because of procrastination. If you’re like me, there are times when I sense the Lord’s leading to reach out to a certain person. And then I get busy and fail to follow up on it, only to discover later that there was something difficult going on in that person’s life. Because I put off the Lord’s leading I missed the opportunity to reach out and minister to that person. That’s an awful feeling to live with.
I have a feeling that after reading this lesson on procrastination the Lord will bring a person to mind—maybe more than one—that you have been meaning to call or reach out to. Respond to Him as soon as He speaks to your heart. I’d rather you obey Him than finish reading this chapter! Don’t let anything stand in the way of following His leading in matters of spiritual urgency, whether in your life or the life of another person. Life is too precious and the consequences too eternal to do anything less than obey when we have the chance.
Procrastination Robs You of the Opportunity to Be Successful
No one who is a practicing procrastinator succeeds at anything. Procrastination robs you of the opportunity to succeed. Charles Swindoll describes the effect of procrastination as if procrastination were human. He personifies procrastination in a most effective way:
“Procrastination comes out a winner every time.… He can outtalk any student when it comes to homework. He can out think any executive when it comes to correspondence. He can outwork any homemaker when it comes to vacuuming or doing dishes. He can outlast any parent when it comes to discipline. He can outsmart any salesman when it comes to selling. He has one basic product and he centers all his energy toward that single goal: defeat! By the sheer genius of suggestion he becomes the epitome of what he destroys: success.”
You see, if we cannot take action when it is thrust upon us, we are doomed to defeat and failure.
He was going to be all that a mortal should be
To-morrow.
No one would be better than he
To-morrow.
A friend who was troubled and weary he knew,
Who’d be glad of a lift and who needed it, too;
On him he would call and see what he could do
To-morrow.
Each morning he stacked up the letters he’d write
Tomorrow
And thought of the folks he would fill with delight
To-morrow.
It was too bad, indeed, he was busy to-day,
And hadn’t a minute to stop on his way;
More time he would have to give others, he’d say,
To-morrow.
The greatest of workers this man would have been
Tomorrow.
The world would have known him had he ever seen
Tomorrow
But fact is he died and faded from view,
And all that was left when his living was through
Was a mountain of things he intended to do
Tomorrow.
[Edgar A. Guest, “Tomorrow,” A Heap O’Livin’,
Reilly and Lee Company (Chicago: 1916).]
Any businessman or salesman will tell you that the art of succeeding is knowing what to do and when to do it—and doing it at that moment. Thomas Huxley was not a spiritual man but he did have it right when it came to understanding procrastination: “The most important result of all education is to make you do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned. And however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.” What is that lesson? To do the thing you have to do when it has to be done.
Most people keep some sort of “To Do” list where they write down the tasks and goals they have for the day or week. But how many people purposefully take the hardest, most distasteful task and move it directly to the top of the list? Rather than pushing it to the bottom of the list, the person who is willing to do the hardest job when it needs to be done is on the road to success.
All of these practical reasons for defeating procrastination are important on a day-to-day basis. But there is another reason for conquering procrastination that is far more important. Procrastination can keep you out of heaven.
Procrastination Robs You of the Opportunity for Salvation
Procrastination can keep you from becoming a Christian. That’s what happened to two people we meet in Acts 24, Felix and Drusilla.
The Identity of the Procrastinator (24:24a)
Some background on these two individuals will help you understand their spiritual situation:
1. Felix was Antonius Felix. Greek by birth, he gained his appointment as Roman Procurator of Judea from his brother.
2. Drusilla, Felix’s wife, was one of three daughters of Herod Agrippa I. Felix induced her to leave her husband and marry him. Her father, Herod Agrippa I, was the one who murdered James, the brother of John, and tried to murder Peter as well (Acts 12). Her great-uncle, Herod Antipas, was the one who executed John the Baptist, and her great-grandfather, Herod the Great, was the one who ordered the murder of all the baby boys in Bethlehem in an attempt to eliminate Jesus. This was Drusilla’s family heritage. Spiritually dark, to say the least.
The apostle Paul was brought before Felix on charges of sedition. When Paul spoke, it was not to defend himself but to proclaim the gospel of Christ. No matter where Paul went he always had one mission—to declare the gospel. When Paul began to speak, it was almost as if Felix had been brought before Paul instead of Paul having been brought before Felix.
The Instruction of the Procrastinator (24:24)
Paul spoke to Felix and Drusilla about his faith in Christ, and about three further points: “… righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come.” That sermon was well-suited to Paul’s audience that day because Felix and Drusilla were definitely needy in all three areas. We’ve already established that they were unrighteous people. Their marriage was immoral and their backgrounds were filled with spiritual darkness. They no doubt felt quite uncomfortable at Paul’s words.
Then Paul moved on to self-control, another foreign word to them. They were used to doing whatever they wanted, unencumbered by moral restraints of any kind. And then he concluded with the natural outcome of unrighteousness and lack of self-control—judgment. Paul told them there is a Judge sitting on a throne much larger than the throne of the Procurator of Judea; even the throne of the Emperor himself in Rome. Someday, Paul told them, they would stand before that Judge and He would call them to account for their sins. That must have been some sermon, one that Felix and Drusilla never imagined they would hear when they woke up that morning.
The Impact on the Procrastinator (24:25)
Felix’s response to Paul’s sermon was something we don’t see much in contemporary preaching: fear. But “Felix was afraid” as a result of what he had heard from Paul—he was “terrified” in the words of the old American Standard translation. God had spoken mightily to Felix’s heart, and he was overtaken by fear at the prospect of future judgment in light of his past and present life.
But then, at the very time when he could have had all of his fears relieved, Felix said that most dangerous of words (in a manner of speaking): “Tomorrow.”
The Intention of the Procrastinator (24:25)
Felix sent Paul away, saying he would call for him again at a more convenient time. Felix procrastinated, didn’t he? He put off life’s most important, and sometimes most difficult task—getting right with the God who created, and who will judge, us all. We don’t know if Felix ever believed the gospel of Christ or not. Given his initial response, we would say the likelihood was not good. Even if he did later, we do know that he passed up the first chance God gave him to be saved. He put off until a “convenient time” that which he should have grasped immediately. There is never a “convenient time” to be saved. The time to be saved is when God shows you your need. Who knows whether you will ever sense that need again?
Procrastination’s Two Big Problems
Procrastination is dangerous in any arena, but nowhere is it more dangerous than in the realm of salvation.
Procrastination Produces a False Sense of Control
First of all, procrastination gives us the impression that we are in control of tomorrow. It does not take into account the uncertainty of life. If we knew for certain that tomorrow would come, perhaps we could put off some things. But who knows what life holds past today, past this minute? No one (Proverbs 27:1).
Scripture uses eighteen different metaphors to remind us of the transitory nature of life. For instance, life is like a vapor, here one minute and gone the next. Who would try to build their future on a vapor? That would be a foolish prospect indeed. To assume we can put off until tomorrow that which we should do today is a prescription for remorse—possibly eternal remorse.
The very James who had missed the opportunity to watch and pray with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane apparently learned his lesson. In his letter to the churches, he warns about the presumption of thinking we are in control of tomorrow. Life is a “vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).
Are you putting off until tomorrow a decision about your own salvation? Or a decision to begin walking as a committed disciple of Christ, laying aside the things of this world and living only for Him? Perhaps you hear the gospel presented regularly in church or on the radio, and you keep telling yourself you need to respond and get things settled with God. If you are putting this off, you are building your future on a foundation of vapor. You do not know what tomorrow will bring. Today is the day for salvation.
But let’s assume you have absolute control over tomorrow; that you know exactly how many days left you have to live. There is still a problem. You don’t know whether conviction will ever touch your heart again.
Procrastination Ignores the Uniqueness of Conviction
I refer to the special times when God deals with each person as “defining moments.” Every Christian can think back to the time he was saved and recognize the uniqueness of the situation. Something happened that day that had not happened the day before. The moment of your salvation was a unique event when God brought together all the factors and influences necessary in order to recognize your need for Him.
You may get a tomorrow, but there is no guarantee that when tomorrow comes you will be convicted of your need for Christ. Just as it happened with Felix—he came under sincere conviction the day Paul preached to him—it happens to each of us. The danger is that we, like Felix, will ignore that conviction and put it off until a more “convenient time.” The problem is that the convenient time may never come. You may never be convicted again of your need for salvation.
The prophet Isaiah said it best: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6). If you know the Lord can be found today, then today is the day you need to call upon Him—while He is near.
Procrastination is a giant that will rob you of opportunities for service and the opportunity to be successful. But most of all it will rob you of the opportunity to be saved. Don’t put off doing anything that you know needs to be done today. You have no guarantees about tomorrow and no promise that the promptings you feel today will ever be there again. Whatever you do, don’t procrastinate about being saved. Today may be the only chance you have.
APPLICATION
1. Read Luke 9:57–62.
a. What is the profession made by the first man who was following Jesus? (verse 57)
b. How easy is that profession to make verbally?
c. How hard is it to keep in actuality?
d. What warning did Jesus give the man who volunteered his allegiance? (verse 58)
e. What was the meaning of this warning?
f. What was the request of the second man to whom Jesus spoke? (verse 59)
g. If the man’s father had just died, what would he likely have been involved in doing that very day?
h. Since he was walking along the road with Jesus, what does that imply about the status of his father?
i. Therefore, when might he have been available to follow Jesus? How long a delay was he requesting?
j. What request did the third man make that would have delayed his following Jesus? (verse 61)
k. And what was Jesus’ reply? (verse 62)
l. How do Jesus’ words in Luke 14:26 illuminate His response to the third man?
2. How do you respond personally to what sound like harsh or non-sympathetic words coming from the lips of Jesus?
a. Why was Jesus being so blunt with these who professed a desire to follow him?
b. Do you think He is as demanding of those who say they want to follow Him today?
c. If the encounter in Luke 9 happened today, what kinds of excuses might Jesus be given? That is, what kinds of things do we use as justification for not following Christ with our whole life?
3. Read John 1:35–51.
a. List all the examples of procrastination in following Jesus you find in the lives of those mentioned in this passage:
b. List all the examples of people not procrastinating—i.e., following Jesus immediately:
c. How much did Levi (Matthew) procrastinate when Jesus spoke to him? (Luke 5:27–29)
4. Read James 4:13–17.
a. What is procrastination based on? How would you describe the attitude of those described in verse 13?
b. What is the flaw in such presumptive thinking? (verse 14)
c. How do you reconcile the comparison of life as a vapor with the noble identity of man created in the image of God? Is James denigrating the stature of man?
d. What is the spiritually mature way to view the future? (verse 15)
e. How does James describe presumption? (verse 16)
f. While James is not addressing procrastination specifically in this passage, how does his final admonition fit perfectly with living in “today” and not “tomorrow”? (verse 17)
DID YOU KNOW?
The Latin word for tomorrow was cras, from which the adjective, crastinus, “of tomorrow,” was derived. The prefix pro meant “forward” or “toward.” Therefore, the Latin verb procrastinare came to mean “put forward to tomorrow.” The person who procrastinates is the person who promises himself each day, “I will do it tomorrow.” And when tomorrow comes, the same promise is made again and again. That is, tomorrow is always 24 hours away. Tomorrow is close enough to keep us from feeling overly guilty, far enough away to avoid the discomfort we feel about getting it done at all. One wonders if Latin cras (tomorrow) was connected to crassus, the Latin word for “dense.” Procrastinators could certainly be called crass as we define it today—”lacking in discrimination and sensibility.”
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