Procrastination rears it's ugly head yet again

My head is swimming with different post ideas, but when I sit down to write them out, I go blank. Bear with me, I'm sure it'll pass. 

I've been thinking a lot about procrastination, and how it seems to overtake my life at times. There will be days where the thought of doing some mundane task sends me into an hour to three hour stretch of full on procrastination. We're talking sitting on the couch staring blankly out the window, fiddling on my phone, mindlessly listening to music, that kind of thing. It isn't the task itself that is stopping me. It's not necessarily hard to clean up the kitchen, switch the laundry, or sand down the shelves I'm working on in the garage. For whatever reason (spoiler alert: there is a reason), I freeze up and get nothing done. 

Other days, I make a list and check off every single item. Nothing stops me and I plow through it. I feel like I'm on top of the world and nothing can stop me. I imagine that if you were able to witness my day, you'd see a whirlwind pass by you this way and that as I did each task at record breaking speed with top notch accuracy.

Okay. Maybe it's not that impressive.

But what I'm realizing is that I need to get to the heart of this procrastination. I would dare to even call it lazy although I truly hate that word. I'm about to get real with you and call it what it is.

It's sin.

Satan pounces on my heart at these moments. He sees the opportunity to stop me in my tracks and it works almost every single time. I hate admitting it, but it's so very very true. I can sit and stare, knowing that I have a,b, and c to do and still sit there. I will tell myself "just go do it, it will only take a minute or two and you'll be done with it" and also know at the same time that I'm pep talking myself that I will not get up from the couch. It's almost paralyzing, but the keyword there is almost. It doesn't have to be a done deal like that. Satan doesn't actually have to win. 

There is scripture that offers support for this. When Jesus is in the desert for 40 days, being tempted by Satan the entire time, he says "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" (Matthew 4:10)

Cool, right? Jesus, as our very own perfect example to follow, shows us that we just have to tell Satan to get away from us, and he will. That's it. We only serve one God, and it is not Satan.

Then there is this scripture, which I've fallen back to countless times in my life:

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." (1 Cor 10:13) (emphasis added by me)

So really, there is no reason that I can't escape those thoughts and actions. It is possible to get out of that rut. He doesn't ever allow us to be tempted more than we can bear. We have the free will to choose to turn away from it or to give in. It's our choice. The most powerful tool he gives us in those moments is to pray about it. To purposefully say "Get away from me, Satan" and ask, beg, plead for God's strength and mercy. And guess what?

Prayer works. So I need to do it.



Thanks for reading. Writing this out helps me process things I know but don't always do.