Daily Devotional For Thursday, March 7, 2024

Well, Thursday is here and just one more day to the weekend. Did you get everything completed you wanted to get done this week? On March 4, I talked about procrastinators and today I want to talk about why some people simply procrastinate and/or are lazy. Read the following passage from Proverbs 6:9-11, “How long is the lazy man going to lie around? When is he ever going to get up? (10) “I'll just take a short nap,” he says; “I'll fold my hands and rest a while.” (11) But while he sleeps, poverty will attack him like an armed robber” (GNT). There are times when we feel we have bitten off more than we can chew. Some people who appear lazy and are procrastinating might be trapped in the paralysis of analysis. This is why they give excuses and put off doing anything because the challenges they face to complete the task seem larger than the task itself.

Even Jesus warned us about this in Luke 14:28-32:

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? (29) Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, (30) saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ (31) Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? (32) And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace” (ESV).

There is a cost or a price we must pay to do anything and sometimes we naively underestimate that cost. And as we get into that project, we realize that. Here are some examples below:

“Apparently many people don't know how to count the cost for their building projects. That's why cost overruns, which stem from "an underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting," are notoriously common. Here are some famous cost overruns:

• • The Suez Canal cost 20 times as much as the earliest estimates.
  • The Sydney Opera House cost 15 times more than was originally projected.
  • The Concorde supersonic airplane cost 12 times more than predicted.
  • When Boston's "Big Dig" tunnel construction project was completed, the project was 275% ($11 billion) over budget.
  • The Channel Tunnel between the UK and France had a construction cost overrun of 80%, and a 140% financing cost overrun.
  • A study of cost overruns published in the Journal of the American Planning Association found that 9 out of ten construction projects had underestimated costs. Overruns of 50 to 100% were also common. Another group studied IT projects and also found that the average cost overrun was 43%. 
  • This study also found that 70% of the projects were over budget, exceeded time estimates, and had estimated too narrow a scope” (Source: https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2013/january/7012113.html).

And when it comes to us, two main reasons cause us not to jump in and begin the task or project. First, the task or project can be so overwhelming and daunting that it stops us in our tracks. And when that happens, we might feel like the lazy person who wants to take a nap and sleep, fold our hands and rest a while. Chuck Swindoll writes he has a solution that when it is him:

“To ease this grind, I find it helpful to break the job down into manageable pieces, and I make the first portion of the job relatively easy to accomplish. Doing this helps me get started. If I can overcome the inertia and begin tackling a difficult project, the momentum I gain helps me continue” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Living the Proverbs: Insight For The Daily Grind, Kindle Edition, p. 162).

Second, sometimes we are hesitant to start a project because we simply do not know where to begin. We think that if we start and make mistakes it may cost us more time, money and energy we do not want to expend as well as make the task or project harder to complete. The decision to not to decide to do something is still a decision. In other words, indecision is still a decision. Sometimes, the best solution is simply dive in slowly and see where it goes.  Look at Proverbs 16:3, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (ESV).

Therefore, we must allot more time, money, energy and etc. especially to any task or project we want to do. Otherwise, as Jesus said above, we will find ourselves embarrassed. So, count the cost. If you do not know, then ask others who have done the same or similar task or project before you begin. If you don’t, you might end up like Christine Bishop below:

“At her rental house, which she named "The Critter Café," Christine Bishop was a well-intentioned rescuer of stray cats, dogs, and lost ducks. Then someone dropped off a cage of pet rats. Soon neighbors were complaining of a stench from the house, and could see rats running outdoors.

When officials entered the house, they found the rats had totally over-run the house. They initially removed 1,500, and estimated that at least a 1,000 remained. The property-owner, Dale Carr, says the rats are feral, so "they'll bite, carry ticks and fleas, and are susceptible to rabies and disease." Township Supervisor Brian Werschem says this number of rats "… can breed 1,500 rats every three weeks, so if they're not removing them at a rate of 100 per week, they're not making progress."

The next step in the plan is to wrap the house and fumigate it, which "could cost the owner nearly $30,000, not including cleanup and disposal cost” (Source: Stephen Kloosterman, "Overrun by estimated 1,000 rats or more, Critter Café Rescue shut down by authorities," Muskegon Chronicle (5-26-15).

Questions To Consider

• Looking back over tasks or projects you have felt needed to be completed, what caused you not to complete them?
• When you know you should begin a task or a project, how do you go about determining the “cost” of it? 
• As we saw above, most companies and municipalities underestimate the cost of their projects. They experience huge and extensive over runs. In what areas of your life has that happened to you and why?
• When it comes to being a disciple of Jesus Christ, what do you perceive are the costs and why? Have you and are you willing to pay that cost? Why or why not?
• If someone came to you and asked you, “What are the costs of being a disciple of follower of Jesus Christ?”, what would be your response to them and why? Does your answer align with your own life? Why or why not?

Scripture To Meditate On: Luke 9:62, “Jesus said to him, `No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’” (ESV).

Prayer to Pray: “Dear Jesus, help me to finish the things that bring You glory. Please give me wisdom to calculate what I am committing to do as well as humility to ask others what they think. Lord, I do not want pride, or fear or ignorance to stop me in my tracks. I do not want to put my `hands to the plow and then look back.’ Jesus, I ask that You help me not for me, but so that I can use this as a testimony to share to others about You. I want to bring You glory, not glory to myself. As Your disciple, I commit my life, my dreams, my plans and my goals to You. So, as You taught us to pray, I pray that Your will be done and Your kingdom come in every area of my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside, Pastor Kelly