NOW IS THE TIME

“...behold, now is the accepted time...” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Now.  Now is the time.  My late parents taught me many things.  There’s one thing they are still teaching me, almost six years after their deaths:  Don’t procrastinate.  My parents were mostly good people.  They were “human”. They had their good points and their bad points.  Two of their WORST points were that they were each pack rats and they were each very severe procrastinators.  They died of natural causes within just a few weeks of each other.  As pack rats and procrastinators, they left my sister and I the monumental task of going through all of their “stuff” and finishing many projects they’d started.  My sister lives in the house where we were raised in nearby Canton, MA.  I thank God she lives there.  We could NEVER have readied that property for a “quick sale” unless we just sold it as is with all the stuff in it.  We are still cleaning up and fixing up the house!

The second floor of the oversized “Cape Cod” style house was unfinished.  There was a half built stone wall that was never finished.  There was a homemade fence that was never finished.  My mother left letters and magazines from the 1970s and 1960s, lots of them.  There were broken down appliances.  There were books and books and books, and clothes and clothes and clothes.

Frustrated, my sister has said, “They never finished anything!  I want to finish things!”  I agree.

My parents would be in their early 80s today.  I think they each envisioned living into their 90s, healthy, and having all their projects and plans completed, but it just never happened.  Life “got away from them”.  Like my sister, I also do not not want to leave behind a mess to clean up.  Being a minister, I think I’m particularly cognizant that life is short.  I admit that I can be “driven” to get things done- maybe too much so, but I’ve seen the danger of putting things off.  

This blog is a good discipline for me.  Unless I’m out-of-town (as I will be in a few weeks) I make sure I post something on it every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  I have checklists and daily routines and disciplines.  I know that may seem a bit fanatical, but I’m pretty much my own boss (well, I do answer to my Church Board, but they’re pretty good and usually don’t put too much pressure on me).  I  want to make sure I use my time and energy wisely.  

I’m really not putting my parents down, in case you’re thinking that!  I miss my parents.  I frankly miss them much more than I ever thought I would.  There are so many times I wish I could just sit down and have a conversation with them, but I can’t.  But their procrastination has left a tough burden  for our family to deal with.  I feel so strongly about this:  don’t procrastinate.  Don’t put things off.  Be disciplined.  Follow through with what you need to follow through with.  What’s that one thing you REALLY need to do today?  Do it!