Are you a procrastinator? Most of us probably find ourselves procrastinating occasionally but some people make it a lifestyle. Those that do can usually come up with some pretty good excuses for procrastinating. The problem with that is the excuses do not take away the consequences. Here is my story.

Late one evening two years ago, I began to have severe pain under the lower right side of my ribcage. It gradually got worse as the evening went on until it was unbearable. I told Carla that we were going to have to go to the emergency room so we did. That night started a chain reaction of doctor visits, tests, and an ultrasound. The conclusion was that my gallbladder was the culprit and surgery was the fix.

“What will happen if I wait?” I asked the surgeon. “You may make it a month, six months or a year but it will happen again, so you can choose to wait or have the surgery now,” he said. I really did not like the idea of them sticking tools through little holes in my belly and sucking something out, so I decided to wait…or should I say procrastinate.

Over the next two years, I had many of what I called tremors of pain and sickness but no earthquakes so I continued to put it off. A few weeks ago, I had another attack and the earthquake of pain measured by my internal seismograph ranked it equal to the 1960 Chilean earthquake, which was the strongest earthquake measured by seismograph at a Richter magnitude of 8.5. It lasted almost all night. Since I had been through it to a lesser degree two years ago, I didn’t go to the ER, I toughed it out. The thought that kept going through my mind was that I would not be going through this if I had not procrastinated.

I sat in the surgeon’s office as he shared with me the details of the surgery that I would be having two days from that moment. He would do the surgery laparoscopically, which meant only three small holes and a quicker recovery. He said there was only a 1 in 200 chance that it would be more complicated and he shared what he would do if that were to occur.

I arrived at the hospital and prepped for surgery. “Take off all your clothes and put this pretty little gown on,” the nurse said with a grin. I sat with my family waiting to be carted out. Two men in green scrubs arrived, so we said our goodbyes and I was off to surgery. In the holding area, a nice nurse told me she was going to give me a little something to help me relax. Within seconds, the room started to spin and that is the last thing I remember until I woke up in recovery.

I was told that the surgery was more complicated than expected. The surgeon said that my gallbladder was terribly diseased and that scar tissue had attached to linings inside that it was not supposed to be attached to. That required a little more, extensive surgery. They had placed a drain tube in my stomach and told me that I would have to spend the night in the hospital. If everything went well, they would remove the drain tube and let me go home the next day. Then the surgeon looked at me and said, “That thing should have come out of there two years ago.” Two years ago, the surgery would not have been as complicated. I thought, “I wish I had not procrastinated.”

They got me settled into my room for the night where I would have a constant barrage of nurses checking stuff, changing stuff and shooting stuff in me. The powerful pain meds kept me from feeling much pain. My wife, Carla, was there and I don’t know what I would have done without her as she gave constant care and support.

They told me that I would not be able to go home until I was able to “Empty” myself of fluids. The IV continued to pour fluids into my body and I was drinking a lot of water. I tried all night long to “Empty” but to no avail. By 4am, I was ready to explode and still nothing. I called for the nurse and explained that I still had not been able to “Empty”. She checked me and said I had 700cc’s of fluid in my bladder. Most people pass 30 to 40cc’s and hour so I was definitely overdue. The only remedy was the dreaded catheter. It worked and I finally got some relief.

Later that morning I was able to “Empty” all by myself which met one requirement for getting to go home. The doctor came in and checked me. He said that he was going to release me and gave me some instruction for later. As he was leaving, He reminded me one last time that I should have done this two years ago. The nurse came in and pulled the tube from my stomach, took the IV out and told me I was ready to go home. And I did just that!

I learned a lesson that day. Procrastination comes with a price and sometimes a painful one. Because I procrastinated, the surgery was more extensive, an extra night in the hospital was required, the pain was more severe, and the recuperating process would be a little more difficult.

Have you been procrastinating in some area of your life? Do you keep telling yourself you will do it when…? Is your marriage suffering because of it? Is there a wedge in a friendship because of it? Is your job in jeopardy because of it? Are your finances upside down because of it? Are your children feeling the affects of it? Is your relationship with Jesus cold and indifferent because of it? Is your health suffering because of it?

If you answered yes to one or more of those questions, it is time to do something about it. Do not procrastinate as you deal with your procrastination. It may be much more costly than you think. Our procrastination not only affects us, it also affects the people around us. Who is being affected negatively because of your procrastination and who will reap positive benefits if you stop?

To my friends and family who read this and are wondering if I will heed my own advice, the answer is yes, and I am going to start next Monday! Just kidding.

Have you moved lately? If so, you know that moving in is only half the battle. Unpacking boxes can take awhile. We have been unpacking boxes for two weeks, a little at a time. I had a round with one box this morning and the box won. It was not a pretty sight. I will tell you about it.

We have not gotten around to hanging pictures on the walls yet but somehow the box with the pictures made it from the garage into the house, prematurely. It had been setting in the same place for days. Since it wasn’t in my pathway, I did not bother with it. It just sat there waiting for its time to be unpacked like the others, until yesterday. My parents bought us a recliner that I picked it up yesterday and put it in the living room. I had to move the box to put the recliner where it needed to go.

The large box had been sitting on the left side of the kitchen entryway posing no real navigational issues. When I moved it, I slid it to the left side of the kitchen entryway, which is between the kitchen and my bedroom. I had been navigating my way all evening with no problems. With the house lights on that big box was easy to see so I did not even think about moving it. I wish I had thought about it!

I got up this morning (Sunday morning) and headed for the kitchen to make my breakfast and coffee. Somehow I walked right past the box with now problem. I didn’t even realize it was there. I got busy pulling together my two eggs, toast and coffee breakfast. It was time to relax in my chair in my bedroom, enjoy a good breakfast and cup of coffee to get my day started.

I came out of the kitchen and rounded the corner like a NASCAR driver holding a tight turn in the curve. At that moment, I found the box. My left foot hit that box and I started falling. When I tried to stabilize myself with my right foot, it caught a guitar case sitting near by and my entire body pitched forward. I had no more feet to use to stabilize myself. I became air born for a couple of seconds, flying down the hallway. I hit the floor with such force it sounded like a bomb went off. The plate of food and coffee went air born too and then they hit the floor. With the forward momentum, they slid all the way to the other end of the hallway, spilling their contents as they went.

It looked like an explosion had taken place. The coffee splattered all over the wall and floor along with the eggs and toast. My knee was in some pain but not bad. What scared me was looking down at my hand and seeing it covered with blood. I did not even feel it cut. Maybe the plate or cup broke and sliced my hand open. I once had a cut that was so deep that I did not feel it so I figured that was what happened. I was not sure how bad it was because I could not see the cut for all the blood. Lying there in the floor, I took a closer look at my hand. It wasn’t blood; it was jelly (All-Fruit). I wasn’t bleeding to death after all.

After hearing the explosion, bedroom doors started opening as everyone jumped from bed to see what dad and husband had done this time. Carla helped me clean up the mess. It looked like a crime scene but did not call in CSI. We had it under control.

I went back to the kitchen and made myself a toasted peanut butter and All-Fruit sandwich and another cup of coffee. I just did not have it in me to make two more eggs. That incident wiped me out for a few minutes.

I did learn something though. Sometimes you have to slow down a little and be aware of the things that are in your path. If you don’t, someone could get hurt!

I am guessing that many of you reading this story have dogs. We have two. Roxie is our part Chow female and Tucker is our part Cocker Spaniel male. Before we moved a week ago, they had a medium size fenced in area to live in, with no trees. At our new house, they have a very large, in comparison, fenced in backyard as their new home. It is like, doggy heaven equipped with tree’s, which made things complete for Tucker. If you have a male dog, you know what I mean.

I was sure they would be completely satisfied living in doggy heaven and would never try to leave. I was wrong! One morning I was looking out of the kitchen window when I saw Roxie walking around the fence line. It was hilarious to watch her, though I was not sure what she was doing. She started at one end of the fence, lying down in front of it, and then she would move a couple feet and repeat, up and down, up and down. I thought, maybe she had some weird ritual that I had never noticed. I was wrong again!

Roxie was looking for an escape route. She decided doggy heaven was not enough for her so she found a place to push her way under the fence to the outside world. I was able to get her back in rather quickly but there were consequences. I put her on a 20 foot, rope until we had time to fix the escape route problem. With that entire yard to roam in, she was stuck to 20 feet of it because she was not satisfied with doggy heaven.

My first thought was that she is a stupid dog. She had a nice yard, people who love her, Tucker as a friend, food anytime she wanted to eat, an endless supply of water, and a nice place to sleep. What more could a dog ask for. She would never have to worry about being run over by a car, shot for being in some one’s stuff or starving and because of her actions; she ended up on the end of a 20-foot rope.

My next thought was that we humans are much like that. It started with Adam and Eve and continues with us today. Adam and Eve had heaven on earth but lost it because they went for the one thing God told them not too. They had a beautiful place to live, a personal relationship with God, no sickness or disease, no bad days or sad days, and no death. They did not have to wash or iron clothes because they did not wear them. They had it made and all they had to do was enjoy it but they chose to do the ONE thing God said not too.

How often do we do the same thing? God has lovingly given us spiritual and moral boundaries for our safety. He asks us t o follow Him, worship Him, obey Him, trust Him and find joy in life, and yet we find ourselves dissatisfied and looking elsewhere for purpose and fulfillment.

God has given us boundaries that will enhance our lives not hurt them. Outside those boundaries is a lot of heartache. That is where we find friendships, marriages, families and our lives destroyed. We set boundaries for our kids, not to cheat them out of something better, but because within those boundaries is the best. Roxie may have felt we cheated her out of fun by providing a fenced boundary but she was actually, given love and safety within the boundary. Adam and Eve felt God was withholding something better from them when He gave them a boundary but that was not the case at all. He was actually giving them the best within the boundary.

I have decided that Roxie’s decision, though unwise, was not a lot different from decisions we humans make everyday. Maybe we can give a little more thought to the loving purpose of the boundaries that our heavenly Father has given to us. Sometimes we miss the treasures and pleasures under our nose because we are too busy looking outside the fence, wondering what we are missing.

Note: The names in this story are not the real names of the people in it, nor do the names represent the real gender of the people. Any of the made up girls names could really be a dude and visa versa.

I walked into the door of one of my many offices, ready to get a cup of coffee and do a little reading and writing. This particular office has thousands of books in it. I usually go to the coffee area, order my coffee, put my stuff in the chair that I generally sit in and go back to get my coffee. Then I go pick out three or four books that I want to glean and go back to my sitting area.

On this particular day as I stepped up to order my coffee, I noticed Debbie behind the counter. It was unusual, because Debbie does not ordinarily work coffee. I asked her how she was doing. She said, “You don’t want to know.” “Having a rough morning?” I asked. She explained that James had not shown up for work at the coffee area and she was now wearing two hats for the day. “I’m sorry, but I will make it easy on you this morning because all I want is a tall bold coffee,” I said. She smiled and I could see the look of relief on her face as she said, “Coming right up!”

I got my coffee, grabbed the books I wanted to glean and took my seat. For the next few minutes, I did more watching and listening than I did reading, as you will see. Mary walked up and relieved Debbie for a few minutes. I could see the frustration on both of their faces but I will give them credit, they tried to hide it with smiles that seemed somewhat heavy. Underneath the heavy smiles, I am sure they were thinking, “How on earth are we going to cover here and get our own work done for the day?”

Mary was now working the coffee counter and she was having a tough time. She paced like a caged animal waiting to be, released. Her furrowed brow revealed the serious thought process going on deep below the surface. She needed to be doing what her job responsibilities required for the day but because James did not show, she couldn’t.

Cindy entered the coffee area so quickly you would have thought she was walking on hot coals. Cindy was another employee that worked in the books. She began to share with Mary a problem she was having in her department. Like a machine gun with a hair trigger, she fired away. “I scanned the stuff on my cart and it said to put it in the children’s section but there is no place to put it and I don’t know what to do,” she said, loudly. Mary spoke calmly and direct, “I can’t come back there right now but when Debbie gets back up here, I’ll be there.”

Debbie came back to the coffee counter after a few minutes and I could tell from the conversation what she and Mary were doing. They were taking turns doing coffee and their regular responsibilities so they would not get too far behind. A voice over the loud speaker requested Mary come to the book counter. With a low but visible sigh, she headed that way.

It was obvious to someone paying attention, and I was, that things were chaotic. I began to wonder if James had any idea what kind of situation he left his co-workers to deal with. “Maybe he is sick and maybe he just woke up late and decided not to work today,” I thought. Whatever the reason, he had left his team in a precarious situation.

It made me begin to question how often in life we overload others by not carrying our own load. More than that, how often do we do it without giving it a second thought? I saw something that morning that James did not see. I saw the result of his not showing up for work. He left his team in chaos trying to figure out how to do his job and theirs, and though they were handling it, it was not easy.

I realize there are times when we get sick or an emergency comes up that prevents us from carrying our load but I also know that there are times when we just opt out with no prior warning to those who will have to take the extra load.

It happens at work, it happens at church and it happens, a home. They all require cooperation and without it, things get chaotic. The load can get heavy for those having to pick it up and important things may go undone. Stress and strained relationships will often be the result.

Leading a church presents various opportunities to witness the scramble and chaos that occurs when one or more individuals wake up and decide not to show up. Marriage counseling often uncovers the stress a husband or wife is feeling because one or the other has opted out of their responsibilities. People often experience strained relationships with co-workers when they feel like they are being, taken advantage of.

Maybe the next time we think about opting out of our responsibilities for a day, we could give a little thought to the people that will be affected by it. If it is not necessary to miss, don’t. If it cannot be avoided showing gratitude toward those covering for us would go a long way. In addition, for those who are faithful we should tell them how grateful we are.

Sometimes it is easy to take for granted the faithful ones while complaining about those who are not. If you have a husband or wife who takes their responsibilities in the home serious, tell them you appreciate them. If there are people in your church who are faithful to their responsibilities, let them know that you appreciate them. If you work with someone that consistently fulfills their responsibilities, thank them. Expressing gratitude is good for the heart of the one expressing and is encouraging to the recipient.