If you only had 48 hours remaining until Christ returned, what would you do? The one thing you don’t need to do is pack. There will be no suitcases with you on our flight. No photos, no checkbooks or credit cards, no cars or furniture. No trophies, souvenirs, plaques, awards, or prized possessions. I’m not even sure about the clothes on our backs. It’s going to be so fast, so glorious, and so instantly transforming that we’ll not miss a thing. Let’s spend our remaining hours doing some important things we’ve been putting off. Let’s do something about those “sins of omission.”

When it comes to sin, we can categorize it in three ways. There are sins of disposition, when our attitude isn’t pleasing to God. This can include a spirit of bitterness, envy, unwarranted anger, unbelieving anxiety, or unloving disdain.

There are sins of commission, when we commit an action that displeases the Lord. For example, adultery, theft, lying, or rudeness. Then there are sins of omission, things we should have done, but haven’t. The Bible speaks of this in James 4:17: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” Today’s our chance to rectify one or more of those omissions. Let’s ask ourselves—what responsibility have I neglected? What duty have I shirked?

Procrastination is the Disease of Delay. University students come by this naturally, putting off papers until the last minute. That’s because many of them have never before had to depend on themselves for structure, and it’s hard to learn the discipline of working ahead. One interesting phenomenon is the way students put themselves through a series of rituals before they can settle down to study. One student got ready for a hard night of study by going to the coffee shop, getting his thermos filled, washing out his dorm sink so he could rinse his coffee cup, clearing out the inbox of his computer, and selecting the right background music on his i-Pod. By the time he was ready to study, he had precious little time to do it.

Studies have shown that executives aren’t much better. They tend to put off the most important work, particularly if it involves an unpleasant task or a hard decision. We all have a little of that within us. When we spend more time preparing to do something than we actually spend doing it, we’re classic procrastinators.

Are you procrastinating on something Christ wants you to do? Well, we can’t put it off until tomorrow any longer. No time’s left for procrastination.  Today’s slogan is borrowed from Nike:  Just do it.

Maybe it has to do with your family. If you’ve been putting off taking your spouse on a date, your youngster on a field trip, or your elderly parents on a getaway, do it now.

Maybe it has to do with your church. You’ve been putting off the practice of tithing, hoping for a more convenient time. You’ve made excuses for not serving on a committee or ministry team. If you believe Christ needs you in that role, punch in the church’s number, talk to the pastor or staff member in charge, and accept the challenge.

Perhaps it’s a mission of mercy. There are times when we feel we’re too tired to undertake some act of kindness for another person, but consider what the famous evangelist John Wesley wrote in his journal on January 4, 1785—when he was 82 years old:  “At this season (New Year) we usually distribute coal and bread among the poor of the Society. But now I considered, and they wanted clothes as well as food. So on this day and four following days I walked through the town and begged two hundred pounds in order to clothe them that needed it most. But it was hard work as most of the streets were filled with melting snow, which often lay ankle-deep, so that my feet were stepped in snow water nearly from morning till evening. I held out pretty well until Saturday evening; but I was laid up with a violent flux, which increased every hour until, at six in the morning, Dr. Whitehead called upon me.”

Wesley was simply living out his personal creed:  “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”^[1]

If there’s something you need to do for another before Christ returns, do it now. Compose a “To Do” list and make a schedule for yourself. Tell yourself:  “Today I’m going to visit my friend’s mother in the nursing home. I’ll leave home at 9:00, get there at 9:30, stay a half-hour, then have a cup of coffee on my way home.”

In the movie classic Gone With the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara said, “I won’t think about that now. I’ll think about it tomorrow.” No, today is the day the Lord has made. Do it now! Go ahead and write a note to that overseas soldier. Make those brownies for the neighbor.

In his book, Today Matters, leadership expert John Maxwell writes that we over-exaggerate the importance of yesterday, for past successes and failures look bigger in hindsight than they really are. We overestimate the importance of tomorrow, for we don’t know what the future holds. But we badly underestimate the importance of today. “The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda,” writes Maxwell. There are only a handful of truly important decisions we have to make in our lifetimes. When we make those decisions, then success and fulfillment come by managing those decisions daily—and that shows up in our daily agendas. “You will never change your life,” writes Maxwell, “until you change something you do daily.”^[2]

Time is running out. If we’re going to get serious about knowing or serving Jesus, now’s the time. Napoleon Hill once said, “Procrastination is the habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.”

Well, what if there is no day after tomorrow?