In a Desperate Search for Some Round TUITs

Do you or someone you know have a problem with putting off unpleasant or difficult tasks? I’ve been thinking of addressing this plague of procrastination for a while, but I’m just getting around to it. As someone has said, “Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?” Mark Twain extended that thought: “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”

 

I suspect that each of us has ventured into the realm of “procrastinator-ism” from time to time. Maybe you’re even reading this to put off doing something else, such as doing your taxes. (April 15 is right around the corner, in case you’ve conveniently forgotten.) Paying bills can be another of those undesirable, procrastinate-able duties, as are washing windows, cleaning the garage or attic, or other forms of spring cleaning.

 

If someone were to judge from our planning and subsequent execution of those plans, one might conclude there actually are eight days in every week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and…Someday.

 

Being a writer, procrastination has often become a close companion. The act of writing, especially because it’s a complex commitment of time and energy, can be daunting. I can relate to the wisdom of Bill Watterson, author of the “Calvin and Hobbes” cartoon strip: “You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. What mood is that? Last-minute panic.”

Years ago, I was telling an elder gentleman about a project I had been meaning to get to, but was finding trouble getting around to it. With a twinkle in his eye, he reached into his pocket and pulled out what seemed like a large wooden coin. He handed the round object to me and on it was etched the word, “TUIT.” He had given me the solution to procrastinating – a round TUIT.

 

What a handy, tangible reminder for getting on with something that you’ve been keeping in neutral. The best of intentions might be better than the worst of intentions, but ultimately, they’re intentions just the same until we take steps to move them into action. In his book, David Copperfield, Charles Dickens wrote, “Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.”

 

Perhaps this is why the Bible has much to say about this problem. Proverbs 10:4-5 says it plainly: “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” And Proverbs 14:23 offers a slightly different slant: “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” Procrastination can have financial consequences.

 

Daydreaming is a favored pastime for procrastinators, conjuring up visions of what could happen if they actually did what they were thinking about – without actually doing it. “He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment” (Proverbs 12:11). 

 

I have one writing project I’ve been talking about, thinking about and dreaming about for too long. As I write this, I’m preaching to an audience of one – ME. As soon as I’m done with this, I’m determined to shift to that. As St. Augustine of Hippo said, “God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”

 

Ecclesiastes 9:10 exhorts us, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might….” So if there’s something you’ve been putting off, put off the procrastination. Do it with all your might. Do it now. And when you do, reward yourself with a round TUIT! 

Great Expectations – Not So Great Realities

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens’ best novel according to some, tells the story of an orphan named Pip. Despite its popularity, many people have never read this classic work of fiction. Yet we all know what it’s like to have great expectations.

People buy boats anticipating a bright,
fun future. No one expects them to sink.

Students graduate from high school with lofty ideals and grand visions for changing the world. A couple exchanges “I do’s” at a lavish wedding ceremony, confident their chosen spouse will meet all of their needs and life will consist of daily episodes of happily-ever-after. Interviews go well and promising professionals get hired for their “perfect jobs,” certain the future holds nothing but one success after another.

Sadly, reality doesn’t always align with expectations. Idealistic students discover the real world isn’t so accommodating of their dreams, transforming some of them into cynics. Post-honeymoon, husbands and wives learn their mates have abundant flaws they either ignored or hadn’t noticed. “Perfect” jobs become drudgery, turning hopeful mornings into grievous chores as workers awaken with dread facing the onset of another workday.

Great expectations wilt in the face of not so great realities.

Sometimes church life isn’t much different. Pastors fall, exposing their feet of clay. Congregations divide over seemingly minor differences. Friends in Sunday school or the small group fail to come alongside when needed most. Admired “spiritual giants” prove to be a first-class hypocrites.

We commit our lives to Jesus Christ and instead of “showers of blessing,” we confront a deluge of problems. A friend told me years ago, “Before I turned my life over to Jesus, I could touch manure and it would turn into gold. After committing my life to Him, I’d touch gold and it would turn into manure.”

Or God doesn’t answer our prayers, at least as we anticipate He should. Loved ones die despite earnest entreaties. We don’t get the job offer we hoped to receive. A damaged relationship isn’t restored despite our best efforts. The infertile couple never realizes their dream of having a biological child. Is that the way for God to treat His children?

People and circumstances can and will let us down. At times we will fail to meet the expectations of others – even if we don’t intend to do so. And we discover God isn’t a cosmic short-order cook. He’s not there to do our bidding, and many times He doesn’t do what we expect.

Does this mean we should shelve all of our expectations? Should cynicism become our calling card, convinced things will never turn out the way we think they should? That’s definitely one approach. Another is to be realistic with our expectations. Aim high, but acknowledge life often has a way of falling short of the intended target. Ironically, sometimes we’re surprised to learn falling short was a better target anyway.

One thing we shouldn’t do is crumble in resignation to our “fate.” We can find encouragement from the best source of all – God. After all, He knows us better than we know ourselves. As John 2:25 says of Jesus Christ, “He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.”

When we feel misunderstood, underestimated or unappreciated for all we’re doing, again we can find consolation in the way Jesus was treated by people around Him, despite all His wondrous teachings and acts He had performed. “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3).

And we can trust that ultimately, no matter what life hands to us, God promises to meet – and exceed – our greatest expectations. Even in prison, the apostle Paul could confidently write, “according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).

Paul had not the slightest fear or doubt that his ministry would prove to be in vain, despite great adversity and suffering. As he wrote to his disciple, Timothy, “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

Sounds like great expectations to me!

Happy Birthday, ‘Chuck’ Dickens!

Feb. 7 marks the 200^th anniversary of the birth of celebrated British author Charles Dickens. If he’d still been alive today, well…he’d really be old!

Charles, or “Chuck” as he might be called by Peppermint Patty (who also uses that nickname for Charlie Brown), is known for literary classics like A Tale of Two Cities, which takes places before and during the French Revolution; Oliver Twist, the basis for the hit musical, “Oliver”; Great Expectations; and A Christmas Carol, which gave us the unforgettable line, “Bah! Humbug!” and from which many holiday films through the years have been based.

Being a writer that happened to grow up in a housing subdivision where the streets were named after legendary authors – (John Greenleaf) Whittier, (James Fenimore) Cooper and (Edgar Allan) Poe avenues, and (Nathaniel) Hawthorne Drive – I’ve embraced the rich heritage passed down from authors like Dickens.

Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

His opening lines to A Tale of Two Cities are among literature’s greatest: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way….”

The only better opening I can think of is, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Those 10 words hold volumes of meaning. But the introductory words of Dickens’ Tale also capture the essence of a wondrous, horrific time with relatively few words.

Today much of writing is reduced to the substance of cotton candy, good to the initial taste but not much to savor after a few moments. Who has time to read, right? But authors like Dickens transport us to times when words were treasured, when they were implemented as tools for transforming society.

One phrase Dickens did not create is, “What the dickens?” That comes from William Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor” (Act III, Scene II), in which character Mrs. Page states, "I cannot tell what the dickens his name is…." In this instance, the term “dickens” is euphemism for “devil.” Those words were uttered more than 200 years before Dickens’s birth to John and Elizabeth Dickens in Landport, England.

The late Paul Harvey used to tell a story called “The Man and the Birds,” about a man who had an amazing spiritual awakening simply by observing the plight of a flock of birds desperately trying to find shelter from the cold. Some have said Charles Dickens’ own spiritual journey served as inspiration for this tale. In telling it, Harvey even uses the name “Scrooge.” (In case you’re interested, here’s a link to that story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_aeYN1CBt4)

Regardless, Dickens’s writings typically did convey a compassion, a rare sensitivity for “the least of these” that might have reflectee his personal convictions. I’d like to think his writings were undergirded not just by good intentions or warm sentiment, but a sincere desire to mirror through narrative the heartbeat of the Creator.

Perhaps his motives echoed the words I’ve adopted as my “career verse”: “My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the king; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer” (Psalm 45:1).