Why Work Hard?

What difference does a day make? Do it today, do it tomorrow, it will still get done. Unless this happens every day. Unless there is a deadline. Why do I follow deadlines? Who created these and why do I respect them? God made days. God gave us a deadline. God is beyond time. But God subjected himself to the framework of time, through his Word, Jesus Christ. He chose a time to create me. He chose a time to save me. He chose the times I would change, grow, and die. Who am I to disobey? Who am I to say I am above time? Who am I to procrastinate? God is glorified through obedience, and I will praise him through my timeliness.

Procrastination is folly, if not insubordination.

When my good friend, Jonathan, said he wanted to ask me to help him with a project, I was curious and amused. When he told me he wanted me to help write a small part of a book he was working on, I was excited. When he told me what he wanted me to write about, I laughed. I think just on the inside, though. Getting things done. Working hard. I have had several people tell me that I am one of the hardest workers they know. My first thought is to credit that to my father, who taught me to work hard. But being away from home, and outside of the authority of my dad, it's not something that he MAKES me do anymore. And yet, I still do. Although, often times I would disagree. Maybe I do work hard, and others see that. But what they don't see is the war that wages inside of me before I do any work. Procrastination is always a temptation. What I want to do versus what I have to do or what I need to do. There are many days when I'm faced with the to-do list that is calling to be done for the day, and the thoughts enter my mind: "Who is making this list?" "If I don't do it today, but do it tomorrow, what's the big deal? It's only one day difference." "My oil being changed a day later is not going to kill anyone." "Getting groceries tomorrow is not going to cause me to starve, I can eat out today." You get the idea, and I'm sure I am not alone in this thought process. If I am the one making my to-do list, then I am in control, and if I say that it doesn't need to be done, who can argue? And in a 10 sec train of thought, boom, one task is delayed, and guess what? It's not the end of the world.

what I have found over the years (and I haven't lived that many years) is that that train of thought leads to a disgusting and unfulfilling state of living.

It all goes back to who I am as a person. Whether I believe in a God or not, there is an outside governing restraint on my life: time. I will die one day. And that means I only have so many seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years to live. So if there is a God, then he has given me a lifetime to do what I was created to do. Ultimately, he has created my to-do list. He made me, chose which family I would be born in, and where I would be living. He chose which governing authorities I am under, and what people my life is based around. The to-do list I thought was my own no longer seems to be just mine, but Gods. When I decide to not do what is in front of me for the day, I choose to disobey what God has given for me to do.