I gave a great talk one summer morning to a group of campers as young as five and as old as twelve. My speech was centered on the quote: “Procrastination killed the cat” and I was quite surprised that no one knew this saying. The kids listened well as I shared the need to do things immediately without postponing intentions for a later time. Afterward, a counselor about my age named Shannon came to me and said, “Dana, I thought it was ‘curiosity’ that killed the cat.”
While no cat may have ever died from procrastination, we all know it kills. One of our important words in Ecuador last week was ‘ahora’ which means ‘now.’ We wanted to live in the moment; we wanted to seize the opportunities we were given each day; and we did not want to be distracted.
“Ahora’ is a word God wants us all to hear. The author of Hebrews repeated a Psalm three times in chapters three and four: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” How many souls will face Jesus at the Judgment with the haunting memory of hearing the Good News but failing to respond to it?
Or how many of us know of times God asked us to surrender an area of our lives to his Lordship? But instead of saying ‘yes’ in the ‘now,’ we postponed the decision for another day. So often that ‘tomorrow’ never comes.
I confessed to our team the ‘ahora’ challenge for me is to remember that Jesus is always present. I am in Christ and He is in me… now. As we drove up a high mountain on a narrow road in a large bus, I needed to remember: “Jesus is here… now.” No matter what the challenge or danger or opportunity, when Jesus promises: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age,” he means ‘ahora.’
“As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” II Corinthians 6:1-2