Tag: procrastination

Oh snikies! Its press time and I haven’t finished my column yet.

What happened?

I remember at least trying to write a column this week, I think.

What could have happened? I’m not even sure why I write this column anyways. I feel like an old preacher who has three sermons he gives year round. Over and over again, hoping someone catches on.

But what happened this week? Why did I procrastinate so much?

According to Wikipedi, procrastination is the deferment or putting-off of an action or task, usually by focusing on some other distraction.

I’m not easily distracted am I?

Maybe I could find an old blog entry and run it here. Or better yet, find someone who’s a better writer, run their blog entry and then once you think I’m a super writer, I can tag the end with one of those silly MLA style citations.

No. Stay focused. Try and remember why you don’t have your column written.

I know I sat down with my laptop Sunday afternoon. I vaguely remember typing something about how big my God is. Because the bigger your God is, the smaller your problems are. And the bigger your problems are, the smaller your God is.

Wait, I remember what happened now.

I kept deleting it because all I was doing was re-hashing that morning’s sermon.

Ok, so that column idea was a wash.

Sunday night I remember – I planned on trying again, but I ended up playing 10-9-8 at my neighbor’s house.

And for the record – I did maintain the highest score throughout the majority of the evening. Yet for some reason, they said I came in dead last. I guess I’ll have to look into that.

After 10-9-8 I remember coming home and sitting in my living room and “getting my praise on” with Chris Tomlin.

Yet before I knew it, morning had arrived and I headed back to the office.

Now I’m pretty sure I tried typing something that morning.

I do remember staring at a blank screen for a long time.

Oh yes. I almost finished two columns Monday morning. But both times I hit a writers block and decided no one would be interested in my weekend trip, tubing on the Guadalupe River.

Somewhere along the way I remember being caught up in the blogosphere.

Everyone was blogging about Apple Computer’s announcement to start fitting their computers with Intel processors, replacing the IBM chips that have run the machines forever.

I think I may have enjoyed a #2 from Crow’s about that time as well.

That should have inspired a column in-and-of-itself, because it doesn’t get much better than that. But I guess food on the brain and a full tummy just made me put writing off even more.

Monday evening I spent my time trying out a new Thai Shrimp recipe from H-E-B and then enjoyed a quiet evening on my porch with my two dogs.

Maybe if I had more time during the day, I would have written a column by now.

Isn’t that ultimately the problem? Its not a matter of time management is it?

Around 10:30 p.m., my “sister” Kathryn Shindoll called and we talked about her trip to St. Petersburg, Russia.

I was so fired up about her going and the opportunity she’ll have, as she leads 11 interns to work in orphanages there, that I completely forgot about writing my column for whatever little time I had left before I fell asleep.

All I could think about was how badly I wanted to take a trip on my own and how I needed to start talking to Rebecca O’Banion about a trip to Haiti.

I was fired up. It felt like the end of a CWF show. One of those shows when we know God inhabits the praises of his people and works in ways we’ll never know or understand. Awesome.

Well, that brings me to Tuesday — one day before press time.

Surely I wrote something — somewhere.

I woke up at 5:30 a.m.

Odd.

Showered, changed and read Isaiah 40-44. I think reading those chapters may have changed my life – I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

In fact, I was so inspired that I did write something that morning. I had to re-write one of the verses in my Bible.

I marked through “Jacob” and “Israel” in Isaiah 40:27-28 and replaced it with my name and America.

Why do you say, O Jacob (Jonathan), and complain, O Israel (America), “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

I was fired up after reading these chapters. I mean seriously. Do you realize how big God is?

Isaiah says, “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

Isaiah also writes, “God measures the heavens with the span of His hand.”

Any idea how big the heavens are?

Our sun is roughly 150 million kilometers from the earth. If we traveled at the speed of light, 300,000 kilometers per second, it would take us eight minutes and 20 seconds to get to the surface of the sun.

On average, Pluto, is 6 billion kilometers from the sun, depending on where it is in its orbit. That puts Pluto 5.85 billion kilometers away from Earth. At the speed of light, it would take us roughly 325 minutes, or 5.4 hours to reach the furthest planet in our solar system.

Yet our solar system is only one in our galaxy, which scientists say is 130,000 light years in diameter. It would take us 130,000 years, traveling at the speed of light to travel from one side of our galaxy to the other.

Is anyone else getting this? Oh wait. I’ve started re-hashing Sunday morning’s message haven’t I.

Sorry about that.

On to the business at hand.

Oh no! Times up. Looks like I put off writing my column for too long.

We have to send the paper to press.

So, I guess this is it for me. No time to type anything else.

Maybe next week I’ll plan ahead better. But then where’s the fun in that.

See you next week.