THE TOMORROW TRAP - Pt.I

THE TOMORROW TRAP (Part I)

Many 21th century people are trapped in and victimized by what I call ‘The Manana Syndrome.’ How so? Because life these days is inundated by a host of demanding tasks and activities that monopolize our time and drain our energy. We are busy, busy, busy – and even while insisting that we are MULTI-TASKERS, we typically feel overextended and we truly struggle to handle the multiplicity of ‘stuff’ that is thrown our way simultaneously. Three primary casualties emerge from these crowded daily agendas: relationships with God, relationships with loved ones and our overall state of health.

In the Spanish language, the word “manana” means TOMORROW. BECAUSE WE ARE SO OVERBURDENED WITH MINUTIA, WE TEND TO PROCRASTINATE! Suffering from sensory overload, and failing to properly prioritize time, talent and treasure, we put off for tomorrow those mission critical objectives that should be accomplished today. A wise adage suggests to us that “procrastination is the thief of time.” And it is. However, on the flip side of the coin, we do not allow ourselves the ‘luxury’ of stopping our roller-coaster ride for just 30 minutes a day to think deeply about what we are doing, or not doing. As I often say, we are too busy being busy!

A beautiful brown baby hippo named Daisy was grinning and floating happily on her back in a water-filled mud hole in Central Africa. Daisy’s Mom, Mrs. Penelope Hippopotamus, was trippin’ out! You see, Mrs. H was very time conscious and consistently punctual. With a busy schedule for the morning, including a planned shopping expedition to Hippos-R-Us, Mrs. H had no time to waste with her Daisy’s shenanigans.

“Daisy! DAISY!” she shouted frantically, “Where are you child?” No answer. Before long, Mrs. H discovered Daisy at her favorite hideaway, bathing lazily in the intense African sun. I don’t have to tell you that she was outraged! Mrs. H stood for a moment glaring down at Daisy, then voluminous vexation spewed freely from her lips: “DAISY! Child, you’ll never amount to anything lying around like this! What you doin’ down there gal? We got THANGS to do!” However, Daisy just lay back, floating on her muddy river of ease.

Adjusting her position ever so slowly, Daisy smiled up at her mother and offered an excuse: “Uncle Bobo says things will get better SOMEDAY…and I figure he ain’t talkin’ about TODAY…so I’m just chillin’ here, waitin’ on TOMORROW! Yeah Momma, TOMORROW is my FAVORITE day! Take it easy…we’ve got TOMORROW.” [Serious Question: HAS YOUR MOTHER EVER DRILLED A HOLE IN YOUR FACE…using nothing but her eyeballs as power tools? Answer: YES! And your Momma’s non-verbal communiqué assured you that there would be grave consequences for any failure to comply with her wishes!] Well, in the heat of such a piercing maternal glare, Daisy was seriously reevaluating her original game plan. Just then she heard Momma’s volcanic voice: “DAISY…if you don’t evacuate that mud hole pronto…I’ll make your TODAY so HOT…it will BURN UP the BACKSIDE of your TOMORROW!” Daisy recanted her proposition and headed for Hippos-R-Us forthwith!

Carefully consider this: Equally as bad as being OVERWHELMED by busy and overcrowded schedules is the prospect of being UNDERWHELMED by inactivity and idleness (e.g. Hippo Daisy). Indeed, time is paradoxical; it can be spent and wasted, but never saved. It can be lost, but never found; that is, once lost, it cannot ever be retrieved. The prolific author of children’s books, Dr. Seuss, once asked this comical question: “How did it get so late…so soon?” While his question sounds rather humorous to us, it is a deadly serious matter. William Penn, the founder of my home state of Pennsylvania, declared “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” A famous fellow Pennsylvanian, Benjamin Franklin, said “You may delay, but time will not.” In other words, time is the most precious human commodity. The irony is that we spend far too little time or effort ORGANIZING OUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET: THE GIFT OF TIME. Only in hindsight do we measure and treasure its true worth; for example, after a loved one has transitioned, we typically regard our shared moments with a higher degree of awareness and sensitivity.

Here’s an important observation (in the form of a question) that I pray will be taken to heart by each and every reader: ‘Have you ever stopped for one moment and thought about the fact that you are now __ years old, and you that sometimes you have difficulty remembering what has happened in the last 5, 10, 20 (or more) years?’ In a sense, it feels like you have been in a curious sort of coma, passing through YEARS with little or no awareness of what is really going on! It’s frightening isn’t it? I mean, when you stop to think, it feels like mere MOMENTS AGO that you were age 15, or 21, or 30, or 40, or whatever. And you ask yourself: ‘Where did it all go…how did it pass by so quickly…and what have I noted, learned, done, or accomplished along the way?

That kind of ‘awakening moment’ brings us to a critically important question. What is the biblical perspective on time? That is, how does GOD see TIME and our relationship to it? In the next installment of this series, I will provide a few practical scriptural insights, but here is one clue. The late humanitarian, Mother Teresa, said this about time: “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”  Stay tuned…more to come tomorrow.