I’m beyond blessed. I’m so blessed I can barely handle the weight of so much good in my life. Every single thing I feel anxious about is actually God dealing so unbelievably bountifully with me. Each frantic whisper of “I’m late, I’m late, I’m late,” each tinge of “I’ll never get this all done” is a moment to step back and look at the blessing. Blessings always come packaged with responsibilities—families, friends, churches, communities, marriages, homes, cars, food, clothing, education, citizenship, hobbies, health, creativity, imagination. Nothing is ever given to us without a responsibility attached to it. But we can’t lose sight of the blessing because of the weight of the work.

Procrastination is when we put off good but hard or annoying or anxiety-laced things for easier things, often bringing harm to us and our homes. It is a lack of self-control, diligence, and courage.

Struggles abound in this work. Thistles and thorns scratch our hands, rip our clothes, destroy what we have built. That too starts in our hearts and minds and can diffuse like smog, like killing gas, into our homes, choking, blinding, breaking. Calm may evade us. Anxieties haunt us in the night and join hands with the siren song of complaining during the day. We have eyes only for what is demanded of us and never for what has been done for us. A world never at rest weighs us down, and all we see is work, work, work, and never the seasons, never the hymns, never the slumber.