Procrastination

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is the 1st of August, that's right! The year 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.

We start in John 4, and I am reading verse 35:

"Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!"

The word "procrastination" in the Oxford Dictionary is defined as: "postponed action". Don't leave things off for tomorrow that you can do today. Things left undone - a stitch in time saves nine!

We didn't come from a very wealthy family, and my mother was very determined that when we tore our shirts or trousers, we had to go to her straight away. She would stitch it up and save the shirt or trouser because if you don't, it tears so badly that it has to be thrown away. Today, let us be more diligent in doing things immediately.

I read a beautiful reading in Streams of the Dessert just the other day, and it says: An old Quaker saying," What shall I do? I expect to pass through this world but once, therefore, any good work, kindness or service I can render to any person or animal, let me do it now. Let me not neglect or delay to do it, for I will not pass this way again." 

Listen to this poem:

It isn't the thing you do, dear,
It's the thing you leave undone
That gives you the bitter heartache
At the setting of the sun.

The tender word unspoken,
The letter you did not write,
The flower you might have sent, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts at night?

The stone you might have lifted
Out of your brother's way;
The bit of heartfelt counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle and winsome tone
That you had no time or thought for
With troubles enough of your own.

Those little acts of kindness
So easily out of mind,
Those chances to be angels
Which even mortals find -
They come in nights of silence,
To take away the grief,
When hope is faint and feeble,
And a drought has stopped belief. 

For life is all too short, dear,
And sorrow is all to great,
To allow our slow compassion
That tarries until too late:
And it isn't the thing you do, dear,
It's the thing you leave undone
That gives you a bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.

Jesus bless you as you go out today and love someone,
Goodbye.