Where do you sit on doing stuff you don’t like to do? Are you one of those people who takes it on as a challenge or a duty? Or are you one of those people who will, if possible, do anything other than the stuff you don’t like doing?

For some things, I often fall into the second category. If I can I will avoid things I don’t like to do and for as long as I can.

When I was young we had a huge back yard and my brother and I would take turns cutting it. I didn’t like cutting the back yard because it took an hour and a half. And when you are thirteen, an hour and a half is like an eternity! It was precious time I would never get back. 

Well, I would put off cutting the lawn until I almost needed a swather to come cut it. I always hoped that a farmer would look at our lawn and bring his combine over and make hay bales out of the grass. 

The thing about leaving something you don’t like doing is that the delay often makes it worse. You will eventually have to do it but it’ll be harder to do when you finally get to it. 

I sometimes will look for excuses to not do the stuff I don’t want to do … like a baseball pitcher with a hang nail who misses his start in the rotation and has to go on the DL. 

Put a little crazy glue on that hang nail and get out there and throw some strikes! 

Meanwhile in the NHL playoffs this past week, a player had a skate jammed up under his visor just missing his eye. He went to the dressing room, got 74 stitches in his forehead and around his eye, missed about thirty minutes of the game while the doctor worked on him, and then came back to play the rest of the game. 

He gave no excuses … and probably makes $10 million less a year than the pitcher with the hang nail. 

And then there was me the other day. 

I hate raking the lawn the first time in the spring. I will avoid it and flat out say, “No, I’m not doing it.” But now I’m retired and have some time on my hands. 

It’s definitely one of those things I don’t like doing. But I decided rather than putting off doing stuff I don’t like doing, I would get’er done.

So I got the rake out, put some gloves on and started raking. Five minutes in, my rake broke. 

That was my excuse; it was perfect.

But I hopped in my car and went and bought a new rake. Then I got right back to it.

Three rakes in, the handle came off. 

I was almost ready to call it quits and give in to my desire not to rake. Instead I took that rake downstairs and drove a nail through the rake and the handle. 

No excuses! I raked the lawn. … We’ll see about next year.

Here’s the thing: We can get into patterns or habits around our relationship with God. Circumstances often bring about those patterns or habits. One of those patterns I observed since coming out of lockdowns is people not going to church. It’s too easy to sleep in on Sunday morning or to watch church online … or to get to where church fits into the category of not doing stuff you don’t like doing. It’s not easy to break the pattern or change that attitude, but get up and get back to going to church. You will be more engaged in your faith and an encouragement to others who attend.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How much effort will it take to make it to church this week? Leave your comments and questions below.

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