Let’s start off with just one word this morning…‘tomorrow.’
Why are we so prone to put things off until tomorrow?
Way back in the 1940s, a movie series ran entitled, Ma and Pa Kettle. I was not alive then but thanks to YouTube and other carriers, this old series is now being given new legs.
In this series, which must have been the forerunner to The Beverly Hillbillies, Pa Kettle is the laziest man on the planet.
He is as lazy as that proverbial hound dog that has to lean against a tree to bark.
Pa Kettle’s signature line is, “Tomorrow is the best day to day anything!” And, it got him into a heap of trouble.
But speaking of procrastination, just maybe the greatest procrastinator of all time was ol’ Pharaoh.
Way back in the day, Moses is telling Pharaoh to let his people go! If Pharaoh refuses, then the Lord will send a plague of frogs to ruin everything.
“They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials (Exodus 8:3-4 NIV).”
Can you guess Pharaoh’s answer? “Tomorrow!”
“Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said (Exodus 8:10 NIV).
OK, let’s get this straight. Frogs are everywhere. They are even in the dough that is being kneaded for bread.
These folks are lying down and sleeping with frogs! They are eating with frogs! They are probably actually eating the frogs!
Frogs are covering their very bodies! Imagine not being able to wipe them off quickly enough before more frogs jump on board.
And, Pharaoh says, “Tomorrow.”
This dude was literally willing to lie down with frogs when the solution was as simple as asking Moses to take them away.
I do know one thing. Pharaoh did not have a wife like mine!
The Li’l Miss here at my house would have had me moving frogs like Mike Mulligan’s steam shovel. I’d have begged Moses to take them away!
So, metaphorically speaking, why are we too, so willing to lie down with frogs? Do we think they will magically go away in the night?
And, what if Jesus had said to blind Bartimaeus, “Tomorrow.”
What if he’d said to Zacchaeus’ dinner invitation, “Tomorrow?”
What if Jesus had told the weeping woman who put perfume and tears on his feet, “Tomorrow?”
What about that whole conversation with Pontius Pilate? What if he’d said to Pilate, “I will talk to you ‘tomorrow?’”
Yes, I know. There was that whole dragging of his feet incident with regard to Lazarus dying.
But, that was strategic. Jesus had a plan.
We are not the first generation to have this ‘tomorrow’ issue. The ancient Hebrew day always began at sundown.
I wonder if God instructed them to do this because there wasn’t really much anyone could do about those frogs of life at sundown. Maybe this design was to gave God time to work on them first.
And, maybe this is part of our answer as well. Maybe we need prayers of discernment to figure out precisely when it is that we need to make our move; and, then we need to follow through and pull the trigger!
In addition, I suspect that possibly maybe we’ve lived with frogs for so long that we no longer see them anymore.
Cheryl and I laugh at our granddaughter Lylah.
Whenever Lylah is done with a toy, she just throws it down and never sees it again. It’s gone!
I know this because I watch her walk right over that same toy that she’s just dropped and trip over it. And, then she has the audacity to get mad!
Child, you did it to yourself! And, maybe we do too. Maybe we are our own worst enemies.
Maybe today is a good day to take notice of some frogs. Maybe today is a good day to consider that we don’t have to live like this anymore.
And, we have a pretty good partner who’ll help guide the way.
“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:12b NIV).”