When the Day Slips Away
Yesterday, I wasted the whole day. You see, due to damage to a main gas line, our entire community has no natural gas. It is thankfully warm enough that we don’t need the furnace, but we also have a gas hot water heater. So, we have no hot water. Today is day six.
The gas company reports they are at the last stage of the restoration, but it requires them to come to each house, turn on the meter, and check the appliances. Even with reinforcements from other parts of the country, that takes a lot of time. But based on the information we were given, it appeared that they would be in our neighborhood yesterday.
I acknowledge that, for us, this is merely an inconvenience. We don’t need natural gas for our livelihoods. We can shower at my son and daughter-in-law’s house. Our stove is electric, so we can still cook. I still didn’t want to miss the gas company, so I didn’t exercise or run the errands I had planned. But, since I had had a weekend full of fun and family celebrations, it was time to get back to work.
Sanctified Excuses
I had a book I wanted to read for research for my upcoming book, but the reading was heavy and academic. Since social media seems to have the most reliable updates on the gas situation, I was checking it regularly. This is, for me, a disastrous combination. By midafternoon, I had given up all pretense of productivity. I was scrolling my social media, eating junk food, and playing a game on my phone.
I had, in essence, let the perfect get in the way of the good.
I can think of a thousand better ways to have spent the time. I could have read a less taxing book for research. I could have written this blog post. Even reading a book of fiction or watching a movie would have been a step up from eating animal crackers straight from the box and endless rounds of Sand Loop. I don’t really like animal crackers, to be honest.
In a sermon on prayer, Charles Spurgeon said, “When we cannot pray as we would, it is good to pray as we can.”
When I was a youth leader, I often observed how often teenagers resort to sanctified excuses. They are understanding for the first time that we can often do good things for the wrong reasons. But rather than letting that understanding humble them, they use it as an excuse for inaction. They decide since their heart isn’t in the act of obedience, whether it be church attendance or acts of service, it’s best to just skip it.
We all, of course, do this. But teenagers often lack the finesse to do this convincingly. Our excuses don’t get more sophisticated, just our expression of them.
Mercies for Half-Finished Days
But even imperfect obedience is obedience. Even half-hearted service is better than no service at all. Everything we do is tainted with self interest. If we wait until we are completely sincere, we would never get anything done.
His mercies are new every morning, thankfully. I have deleted the game from my phone. I have started a cold water load of laundry. Once I publish this post, I will make another go on the academic book. But, if that starts to go south, I have another option in the wings. Unfortunately, I have already been into the snack food.
But I am not letting the perfect get in the way of the good today. If I cannot be as productive as I would like, I will be as productive as I can.
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