The World English Dictionary defines the word “procrastinate” in the following way:
pro·cras·ti·nate [proh-kras-tuh-neyt, pruh-] verb
to put off or defer (an action) until a later time; delay
In Job 38:3, God tells Job to “dress for action like a man”, in 1 Cor 16:13 Paul says to “act like men”, and in Rom 5:12, God holds man responsible.
Biblical masculinity takes action and responsibility.
Putting off or deferring action in the areas you are responsible for is the putting off of manhood itself.
Procrastination is manhood avoidance. It cultivates passivity. It actually trains you to be passive.
The following are ways to tackle procrastination, inspired from Randy Stinson and Dan Dumas. The quotes are taken from their book, “A Guide To Biblical Manhood“.
Do The Hardest Task First
“Attacking your hardest task of the day without delay will build your resistance to passivity. Waiting until the end of the day only reinforces your sinful tendencies toward passivity.”
What are you doing to “build your resistance to passivity“?
Don’t just take responsibility. Build your resistance to passivity. Do it by tackling the hardest things on your to do list, first. Eat the food on your plate that you don’t like, first. Do the project at work that you hate doing, first. Start the project on your house that you have to do, but don’t want to do, first.
Tackle it head on. Get after it. Be intentional to train yourself and your sons to be resistant to passivity.
Rule Your Tasks – Don’t Let Them Rule You
“The man who is cultivating biblical masculinity will not allow things like term papers, taxes, or project deadlines to rule him. He will exercise dominion over them by doing them in a timely manner. So do your work now rather than later.”
Are you ruling your tasks, or are your tasks ruling you?
Procrastination is often caused by the fear of failure or the expectation of difficulty and/or pain. It’s OK not to like fear, difficulty, and pain, but it’s not OK to let them dictate how you live your life.
Don’t let fear, pain, and difficulty push you around and dictate what you do and when you do it. “Be strong, and show yourself a man.” (1 Kings 2:2)
Make The Hard Relational Move First
“Don’t just be bold with tasks, be bold with people. Make the hard relational move first, too. Don’t be passive within interpersonal relationships. Some men are willing to do the hard task first, but avoid difficult situations that involve other people. Whether it means having a tough conversation, apologizing, or even exercising Matt 18:15-17 style confrontation, you should do your pain first.”
What conversation, confrontation, or apology are you putting off? Stop procrastinating.
Talk to her. Be the bigger man and apologize. Love the other person enough to tell them the truth.
Run To The Battle
There’s an amazing contrast in the bible story of David and Goliath. In 1 Sam 17:24, it says that when the “men of Israel” saw Goliath that they fled from him. In 1 Sam 17:48, it says that “David ran quickly toward the battle”.
David ran TO the battle. The “men of Israel” ran FROM the battle.
David slayed the giant.
Be the guy that runs to the battle.
(Image Credit: The Library of Congress)
