I’m a procrastinator; my motto is, “Why put off till tomorrow what can wait until next week.” I’m a procrastinator; not by desire, but by practice; I’ve done it long enough to be really good at it! I’m a procrastinator; so with way too many things to do, it’s always easy to find something else that needs to be done so I don’t have to do what I don’t want to do.

    Why do I tell you this? Because you are probably a procrastinator at times yourself. You may simply want to avoid confrontation. Or, you may want to adhere to your scheduled routine and put off a task that could change and upset your predictable world. Or, you may fear what will happen if you make a change and you lose control over the world as you know it. Or, you may resist finding out some medical condition that could be troubling or life altering. There are a host of reasons why we might slip into procrastination. Bottom line, however, is that we are all vulnerable to this curse of procrastination.

    Some things, however, are too important to let procrastination’s creep absorb. Recently, I found myself traveling back home. I had just returned my son, his fiancÇe, and my parents to their home in another city. They had been in a terrible automobile accident coming to see us. In a sudden downpour of rain, the driver coming in the opposite direction lost control, spun across the lanes, and hit them head on at high speed. Thankfully, everyone’s life was spared and no one was critically injured.

    The dangers of travel were clearly on my mind as I was about to travel the route of their accident on my journey back home. I had just seen them through a day of x-rays and CT scans, and learned of what lingering effects they might have from their injuries. I was deeply thankful that they had not been more seriously injured. At the same time, I was deeply shaken by how close, in one accident, in a blink of an eye, that I had come to losing two generations of my family.

    As I drove out of town, I ran into a few sprinkles and flipped on the wipers. The windshield became a gooey streaky mess. One of the wiper blades slipped off the rail and began to drag on the windshield. Just as suddenly as the rain started, it stopped. My windshield was passable to look through, but as soon as I had a place to safely pull off the highway, I did. I fixed the wiper blade, tested it out, and then was on my way again.

This time, I didn’t dream of putting it off...

    Maybe it was the experience of my family’s recent accident in the rain, or my knowledge that I was supposed to drive through more rainstorms, or maybe it was just the practical knowledge that I didn’t want to have to get out in the rain to fix the wiper blade. The main thing is that this time, I didn’t dream of putting off the wiper blade repair. I did it as soon as it was safely feasible. Why? Because I knew the rain was coming and I wasn’t prepared. I knew that it was dangerous to get caught in the rain unprepared. While I didn’t want to stop and delay my trip, I knew that it was foolish to put the whole trip in jeopardy because I didn’t want to take five or ten minutes to do what was needed to be prepared.

    Each day, we rise from sleep to go face the challenges of a new day. Even with the best planning, we don’t know all that will confront us that day. We do know, however, that most days, our commitment to Christ will be tested and our faithfulness to his lordship will be challenged by temptation. In other words, we know that sooner or later the rain is going to fall.

    On the other hand, we are so blessed! We have been given the grace of prayer, the blessing of God’s Word, and the love of our Father who longs for us to draw near to him and share his presence. Five or ten minutes in his presence, first thing each day, centering our hearts in his grace and surrendering our will to his way for us, can powerfully help prepare us for what lies ahead.

    You see, the real question for us is not whether we will face the rain, but whether or not we will take the time to fix the blades before the rain falls.

    There are just some areas that are too important to let procrastination rule. One of those key areas is our time with the Father. So why not make a commitment to spend some time at the beginning of your day with the Lord, preparing for the rain and getting to know the Father!

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Title: "Before the Rain Comes"
Author: Phil Ware
Publication Date: June 11, 2001

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