WEEK THREE: When You’re Out of Time (The Thief)

Ben Franklin once said, “Never put off until tomorrow, what you can do today.” Procrastination can be defined as “the act of unnecessarily delaying tasks despite knowing potential negative consequences, driven by emotional regulation issues like fear, anxiety, or perfectionism.” Approximately 20-25% of adults are chronic procrastinators, a figure that has quadrupled since 1978. It affects 80-95% of college students, with roughly 50% doing so consistently. The behavior leads to significant anxiety (with 78% of workers feeling anxious when procrastinating) and contributes to poor health (with an average of 55 workdays lost annually). 

Now, you may not fit into these statistics, but every one of us procrastinates at some time or another.  Unfortunately, this idea of “we can do it tomorrow” often finds its way into the spiritual as well as the physical. Many assume they will get serious with God later, when they are older or when they have more time to devote to church. But time runs out faster than we think.

The thief on the cross next to Jesus reminds us that “later” may never come. I am confident that he never thought his life would end up that way…but there he was, along with another, dying face to face with Jesus. One chose to mock, but the other chose to repent.

For too many, the temptation is to look at a life of faith as a hindrance to enjoying life or holding us back from what we really want to do, so we spiritually procrastinate, saying, “I’ll get to it later,” assuming that grace will always wait. But the reality is, we really are never guaranteed tomorrow. God’s grace, our salvation, is not about what you’ve done or how much time we have left. It’s about who we put our trust in. But time isn’t always on our side.

Don’t delay! Grace is available until your last breath on this earth, but don’t wait until then. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can be assured of today. And if you’ve already experienced God’s grace in your life, then use today to fully surrender your life to Christ. Let today be your day!