The Procrastinator
June  27,  2010

There is a procrastinator in each of us.  He lurks in the dark crevices of our psyche.  And when we are about to make a decision, he leaves the shadows, takes a seat on our shoulder and whispers in our ear, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? The word “tomorrow” is the best thing that ever happened to him.

 

We meet a procrastinator today. Jesus is leaving Sumaria and heading south; a big crowd follows him.  a man in the crowd gets caught up in the excitement of being in the company of a popular preacher and shouts, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus turns toward the voice from the crowd and says: foxes have their dens and birds their nest.  i have nowhere to rest my head.  It’s then that the man’s procrastinator hops on to his shoulder and says, think twice, about joining up with him.  he hasn’t a bed to sleep in to say nothing about having a roof over his head.  Follow him and chances are that in a couple of weeks you’ll end up on some corner in Jerusalem with a tin cup in your hand hoping to hear a clink or two.

 

That dampened the recruit’s enthusiasm, so he mumbles to Jesus something about catching up with him down the road.  That isn’t the first time that would be followers had second thoughts stuffed into their heads by their procrastinators and it wouldn’t be the last.

 

When Jesus gets to the next village on the road south, a tall man leaves the roadside crowd and falls in step with Jesus. he, too, wants to be considered for discipleship. Jesus says, follow me.  The eager man is ready to jump on board when the wily procrastinator pops out from the shadows and whispers into his ear, not so fast. hold on. tell him that your father died and you have to bury him.  That will give extra time to think.  Jesus doesn’t say a word; he just looks the man in the eye as though to say, if your father is dead what are you doing out here in the street?  The man got the message.

 

The last character today is the strangest of all.  he comes running up to Jesus out of breath and with knees shaking and he says, I will follow you. You have my word on it.  No matter how high the mountain, I will climb it; no matter how rough the river, I will cross it.

Just then, the procrastinator fills the man’s ear with this excuse: can my decision wait a day or two?  I have to say goodbye to my family.  Jesus sees through that excuse faster than it takes a beetle to blink.  He says good bye and continues on his way to the Sea of Galilee.

 

It was on the shore of Galilee that Jesus said to Peter, James, Andrew and John follow me they dropped their nets immediately, hauled in their boats, asked no questions and followed.  Don’t ask me how they knew that they had met the person who would change their lives.  No excuses were given, no delay was asked.  Somehow they knew that this was the rarest moment of the hundred thousand moments that had passed through their senses, and if they failed to take it it would be gone forever as an ocean’s wave that spends itself in a final curl upon the shore.

 

The same invitation is offered us follow me as is the same whisper, tomorrow.

 

May we never have to live regretting that what we could have taken was never taken.