Procrastination!

​As Gibbs and I were walking the other day, we took a different route… The once frozen ground had thawed, and some rain on top of that made the way muddy, so we broke off from the wood trail and went to the meadow trail.  As we continued around, we came to the lake, and Gibbs broke off from the main path to go down a narrow one that leads to the lake edge.  As I followed him, my eyes were drawn to the lake.  It was 90 percent frozen, with just a small area of open water, and in this enclosure was a gaggle of geese.  As we got closer some honked, and pulled themselves out of the water and on to the ice, slipping and sliding around.
Most of the geese had already migrated, so I wondered what these ones were still doing in Minnesota.  For weeks we had had the sound of hundreds of geese flying south.  Yet these ones had procrastinated and were now confined to this small section of water that remained unfrozen.  Why had they not left earlier?  What signs had they ignored?  How were they suffering now with the cold…. A totally unnecessary suffering caused by their stalling.  Sure… it’s a long way south, but how much easier would it have been to go before the weather was so cold!
As I judged them, I laughed… How many times have I procrastinated!  It seems a natural thing to do.  And sometimes I’ve regretted it, but mostly it works out. 
As I walked through my door after our walk, one of my major procrastinating signs was right in front of me:  dishes!  My sink is small, so one pot can fill it up, but still the sink and the counter and the stovetop can easily become filled to overflowing before I set myself right and just do them.  It’s not that I hate doing dishes, I just hate the thought of doing dishes!  (Maybe the geese we had seen earlier hate the thought of flying so far to stay warm… how bad can it be to survive a winter after all!!).It makes me wonder how this spills out into other areas of life… not just chores, but things that have a bigger impact.  Is there something we are putting off that could make a difference in our lives?   Maybe something that will bring us a deeper level of healing, or something God is calling us to.   And how is this stopping us from living full lives, or worse, harming us, causing us to be frozen and stuck?   And how can we just do the things we need to do…. or at least begin!  For in fairness, the geese had started their journey south, maybe not as soon as they could have, but they had gotten over that initial hurdle. 
So where are you stuck?  Not as far along as you would like to be?  Where do you need to begin?  And what support do you need to move forward?
It reminds me of the quote by Lao Tzu, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”  What is the one step you can take today, or this week, or, even, in this very moment?  Ask yourself this question often and soon the miles will fall behind you!

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