A Christian's Habits: Chapter Twelve
A Christian's Habits: Chapter Twelve
The Habit of Not Dawdling.
Randy’s Introduction:
“Dawdling” is not a word I use in everyday conversation. It is, like all of the language in this book by Robert Speer, older, used in a way we would not use it today, and in need of some translation. But after preparing this chapter for Substack, I began using the word “dawdling” frequently in my self-talk. I now catch myself looking at news headlines in the morning when I should be getting on with my day and I tell myself that I’m dawdling. Later in the day, when I’m sitting in my car in the garage once I have gotten home, scrolling on my cell phone when I should turn off the engine, go in, and greet my family, I tell myself to stop dawdling. At night, when I am sitting at my home desk doing nothing in particular and I know I should just go to bed, I tell myself to quit dawdling and go to sleep. It’s a really effective word.
Now that I have reintroduced the word “dawdling” into my vocabulary I’m developing the habit of catching myself in the act, naming it and moving past the dawdling to do something that will makegoodhappen. I’ve found that the growing habit of “not dawdling” makes my days happier and more fruitful.
So without further ado, I offer you chapter twelve of Robert Speer’s A Christian’s Habits, in older language, used in a way we would not use it today, in need of some translation, but offering some very valuable advice, “The Habit of Not Dawdling.”
I. Dawdling Defined
When do you “dawdle”?
The habit of not dawdling is one of the most needed and useful Christian habits. A dawdler can’t really make a good Christian. If he does, he invariably ceases to be a dawdler.
Plenty of boys and girls who are now dawdlers have in them the making of good Christians, and one of the first signs of their real purpose to be Christians will be the laying aside of all dawdling. Some boys take twice as long to run an errand as it ought to take and waste a great deal of time making up their minds to run it. Some girls are so slow in dressing that their mothers have to do a great many things which their daughters could have done for them if they had only been prompt and quick. A great deal of time and patience is wasted by dawdlers.
As a rule the dawdlers are the very people who complain most when other people dawdle and inconvenience them. If the postman loiters along the way and delivers mail late, if the train is slow and does not arrive on time, if the coachman who was to meet the train lounges about his work and is not there, no one is more impatient than the very people who dawdle themselves and who are now vexed at nothing but the very principle on which they themselves act, the principle of dallying with one’s work instead of doing it.
There is a good word for all dawdlers in the Second Book of Samuel. It was after the long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. At last Abner revolted from the house of Saul and sent word to the elders of Israel, saying, “In times past ye sought for David to be kind over you: now then do it.”1 That was the manly way to talk “Now then do it.” Duties are not to be talked about, they are to be done. In our work and our warfare with evil and in our home duties and our achievements of character, the word for us is Abner’s word, “Do it.”
II. Stall Tactics
What fears cause you to dawdle?
It is foolish to dawdle because of fear that we cannot do. The only way that we can find out whether we can or not is to try at once and to try hard. And all that we ought we can. There is no such thing as impossibility in the line of our divinely assigned work. General Armstrong used to scorn the idea of impossibility. At an Indian Rights conference at Lake Mohonk he once leaped up, when some one had pronounced a certain righteous course of action as impossible with the words: “Impossible! What are Christians in the world for but to achieve the impossible by the help of God?” As he went about in behalf of Hampton Institute he was constantly compelled to do what could not be done.
“Once,” he said, “there was a woodchuck and a dog got after him. Now woodchucks can’t climb trees, but this one had to, so up he went.” And another time, when he simply had to get money for the school, he told of an old negro who was seen digging in a tree for a ‘possum. Someone told him there was no ‘possum there. “Ain’t no ‘possum in dat hold?” said the old man. “Dey’s just got to be, ‘cause dey’s nuffin in de house for supper.”
Men always can. “I can do all things in him that strengthens me,” declared Paul. There were, of course, things he did not do. There are things which we cannot do. But the only way to find out is to try, and if we try we shall find that we can do everything that we ought to do. There is no excuse for dawdling because we can’t perform.
III. The Cure
What steps can you take to implement the habit of not-dawdling?
The best cure is to begin at once. In the matter of character-building, where dawdling is most deadly and most easy, we can begin now by cutting off some indulgence, or by taking on some new practice, such as prayer at a fixed hour or a new attitude in prayer which will break up the dawdling habits. Or we can deal with our speech, and by making it clear and right and instant, help to confirm the habit of straightforwardness.
But the difficulty with most dawdlers is not the difficulty of beginning, but the difficulty of keeping at it. They are like the son in the parable who said promptly, “I do, sir,” and went not. They are ready to make a start, but they soon stop to rest or to think of something else or to look out of the window or to wish that the task were done. They were like the Bandar-log, the Monkey People who are always dreaming and wishing that things could be just by wishing that they were done, who never stick at anything long enough to complete it, but always are carried off by some new scheme.
There is a character in the “Jungle Book” who was no dawdler. That was Rikki-tikki-tavi. When he saw something to be done he did it, and when he took hold he did not let go. Woe to Rikki-tikki if in his fight with Nag he had released his hold on the big cobra’s head, and woe to the family in the bungalow if he had dawdled in taking hold.
IV. The Struggle for Character
In our struggle for character, we must not be frightened of letting go. We shall certainly be lifted up higher before we get through than we had ever dared to hope to go, but we are not to fear. The Saviour of whom we have taken hold has taken hold of us with his divine grasp and he means to raise us far above all that is low in life and at last to lift us sheer into his home above. We ought not to be fearful.
Jesus when he was here was looking for men who would not dawdle. His own life was full of eager, unhesitating action, and he called men to come to him in the same spirit, and straightway they rose up and left all and followed him. That was the kind of disciple he desired. And he taught these men how to act as the workmen of God, prompt, eager, ready for opportunity, quick to do every duty.
In life and work we are not to be at those who are asleep, who begin, perhaps, wakefully, but soon dawdle off again. We are to watch and work as the children of the day. Our Captain’s appeal to us is the old hymn:
Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,
And press with vigor on;
A heavenly race demands thy zeal,
And an immortal crown.
A cloud of witnesses around
Hold thee in full survey:
Forget the steps already trod,
And onward urge thy way.
‘Tis God’s all-animating voice
That calls thee from on high;
‘Tis his own hand presents the prize
To thine aspiring eye.
That prize which peerless glories bright,
Which shall new luster boast,
When victors’ wreaths and monarchs’ gems
Shall blend in common dust.
Blest Saviour, introduced by thee,
Have I my race begun;
And, crowned with glory, at they feet
I’ll lay my honors down.
2 Samuel 3:17-18 (KJV)