Let's develop a sense of urgency
“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work" (NIV) John 9:4
A while ago, I engaged an accident patient concerning the events that led to the unfortunate accident from which he almost survived unscathed but for his right leg which was so badly damaged, it had to be amputated.
Glassy-eyed, he stared at the ceiling. I wondered what the numerous intertwining neurones of his brain were recalling as the tears began to stream from his eyes and the story poured out from his lips – he got stuck in traffic on one of the newly constructed highways. He had reclined comfortably in the front passenger’s seat of a friend’s car. He happily chatted away with his friend as he drove. Immediately ahead, on the next lane to the right was a full-loaded articulated truck. He could still remember his friend commenting about the unfortunate accidents some articulated trucks had been involved in that week, a comment which he laughed over.
However, that laugh had barely escaped his lips when the container slipped off the articulated truck charging towards him. In desperation to save his skin, he instinctively ducked towards the backseat as he heard his friend yelling. But he must have been too slow because the container slammed into his side of the car at the exact instant that he was retracting his right leg. He blacked out and woke up at the hospital to see his leg amputated. It was a week to his wedding and he had been on his way to purchase his suit with his friend.
As he narrated his story, he blew his nose so hard as though that was going to shoo off the memory and added in a poignant tone I might never forget ‘Even if I had 2 seconds, I could have moved my leg away and escaped whole. If only I had just 2 seconds.’ I surmised that ‘time’ had never been that significant to him. That accident had betrayed the value of only 2 seconds and the message had been driven directly into my heart.
Dear reader, please ask God to help you identify your purpose on earth. Endeavour to spend your time achieving that purpose. Waste no more time. Tackle any task you have to complete as soon as possible: if you have to do some good to a neighbour, if you have to evangelize to a soul, if some studying awaits you, if there is someone to visit, if there is some work to do. There is no better time than ‘now’ to do whatever thing you have to do. Please do not procrastinate. Our Lord Jesus Christ admonishes that the time to execute our duties expires soon.
Hitherto, I am haunted by the words; ‘If only I had just 2 seconds’. I pray that it would not take us a calamity to teach us the importance of time. That would be too late a time to learn such an indispensable lesson. If there is anything we are allowed to procrastinate, that should be laziness.