Delay and Postponement
We spoke in the previous issue about the obstacles of the spiritual life, and we now mention that among them is delay and postponement…
Delay and Postponement
The spiritual life does not suit delay nor postponement… Even in social life also – which is on a lower level than the spiritual life – delay and postponement may have many harms… And here we record an important rule:
It is not enough that you do good… but you must also not be late in doing good.
And it is not enough to stay away from error or evil, but you must not delay in staying away from it.
Examples in Social Life
If you give someone an appointment and you are late, he becomes tired of you… Likewise, if you promise someone something and delay in fulfilling it, he also becomes upset. Thus, delay in promises and delay in appointments are both causes of people’s pain.
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And the Lord commands in His Book not to delay the wages of the hired worker.
He says in Leviticus: “The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you until morning” (Lev. 19:13). And He says in Deuteronomy: “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy… You shall give him his wages on the same day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin” (Deut. 24:14–15). -
Likewise, the Scripture commands not to delay in doing good:
It says: “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come again; tomorrow I will give,’ when you have it with you” (Prov. 3:27–28).
So if someone asks you for help, do not postpone giving it to him as long as you are able now…
You do not guarantee his circumstances during this delay, nor how it relates to his psyche, his needs, and his problems. -
Take also the example of delay in offering condolences or courtesy:
We often hear someone praising another, saying, “So-and-so was the first to console me,” or “he was the first to congratulate me.” It is not appropriate to be late in such duties; otherwise, they lose their effect. Rather, your delay becomes a cause of blame or reproach. The same applies to asking about a sick person, or reassuring someone going through a problem or an issue.
Thus the bishop was informed by the deacons about the cases one by one, so that the bishop could visit these cases in their time, as the Didascalia says… Not only in cases of success or problems or incidents, but also the bishop or the priest asks about a person who has gone a long time without confession… perhaps there is a reason that needs attention, or perhaps if delay occurs, his condition may worsen. -
Likewise, there are problems that do not tolerate delay in solving them:
Perhaps with delay they worsen greatly and become complicated, like family problems, for example, which the Church may delay in solving until they reach the courts… Or perhaps a pastor delays in solving a problem, and when he remembers, it is after the opportunity has passed, and everything has ended…
Do you think time waits for you, or events wait for you, until you come at your leisure to solve a problem?!!
There are matters that follow quickly and develop quickly, and perhaps in a little time they turn into a degree of danger you never imagined. And you cannot excuse yourself by saying: “I did not know the matter was this serious or important!!”
Therefore, delay in solving certain problems may be a form of negligence and lack of care for people’s destinies.
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With the same seriousness is delay in teaching and raising children:
A child in his youth is receptive with a kind of submission, repeating everything he hears in trust and without doubt, before reaching the age of argument and discussion in adolescence. And the child has a fresh memory, not yet crowded with much information, lessons, and news; he can memorize quickly everything said to him.
As the saying goes: “Knowledge in youth is like engraving on stone… and knowledge in old age is like engraving on water.” If you delay teaching or training the child, you lose the opportunity of teaching and memorization… and perhaps the world takes the opportunity and fills his memory with opposing information…
Likewise in upbringing… the child is moldable:
He is like dough in your hand; you can shape him as you wish, planting in him principles, values, and habits that become rooted in him from childhood… And at this age errors can be corrected before they turn into habits or natures in adulthood… As the poet said: “Indeed, the branches, if you straighten them, become upright, but wood does not bend if you straighten it.”
I say this to every father and every mother, for marriage is a responsibility, and fatherhood and motherhood are responsibilities… Children are a trust in our hands. And we say the same to servants of Church education and to all responsible for pastoral care, education, and teaching… The matter requires seriousness and attention…
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Among the problems of delay also: delay in apology or reconciliation:
Because the person you have angered—if you do not hasten to remove the effect of the offense from his heart and mind—his feelings toward you worsen, and his anger grows. And perhaps others intervene with comments that widen the gap between you…
This is why the Lord says: “Agree with your adversary quickly” (Matt. 5:25), meaning do not delay in appeasing him…
Thus reconciliation is easier if the duration of conflict does not grow long:
Perhaps the dispute at its beginning between two friends is influenced by familiarity and closeness, waiting for reconciliation to end it. But if the period lengthens and the offended feels that the other has neglected him, doubt enters his heart; if reconciliation is delayed, he becomes upset and thinks of how to restore his dignity, perhaps even taking revenge… Anger becomes hatred, expressed in words that are spread around, and initial closeness turns into enmity. And if the other tries to reconcile, he finds difficulty, even resistance or harsh responses…
As the Lord said: “Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matt. 24).
And in advising not to delay reconciliation, whether internally or externally, Scripture says: “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph. 4:26).
If you let anger remain overnight in your heart or someone else’s without removing it quickly, you do not guarantee its consequences…
Take for example family problems: any anger between husband and wife may start simple and easily solved, but if solving it is delayed and the time lengthens, it may reach separation or divorce…
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Delay may also indicate lack of love, lack of care, and lack of consideration for others’ feelings…
Believe me, even delay in matters you think simple—such as delaying to reply to a letter or delaying a phone call—may be misunderstood…
Worse than this, delay may sometimes lead to forgetfulness, and you fail to do what was required of you… And forgetfulness is taken as negligence, and matters worsen further…
How many problems you cause for yourself and others because of delay…
We move now to another point in delay and postponement, which concerns the spiritual aspect…
Examples in the Spiritual Life
In reality, it is difficult to separate completely between social and spiritual life… For everything we said about social mistakes can be considered at the same time spiritual mistakes… But here we will limit ourselves to the direct relationship with God… Scripture says:
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“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth” (Eccl. 12:1).
Augustine repented and was baptized at about thirty years old, and commented in his Confessions saying to the Lord: “I have delayed long in loving You, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new.”
Through this delay he lost the enjoyment of life with God in youth, and the joy of victory over youth’s battles, and the positive spiritual experiences of that age… A person should practice living with God from childhood and not delay… What is planted in him spiritually from childhood grows continuously… If he delays, what shall he do? -
Not delaying in repentance.
Leaving sin at its beginning is easy… and shows sensitivity to one’s love for God…
If a person delays repentance, it shows, on one hand, lack of concern for his relationship with God, and on the other hand gives the devil the opportunity to strengthen his hold, making repentance difficult…
The practice of sin may turn into habit and nature… and delay in repentance may lead to entanglements hard to break, or consequences more difficult than the sin itself, creating external and internal obstacles, and matters become complicated.
The prodigal son did not postpone; rather, he rose immediately and went to his father’s house (Luke 15). So be like this… Whenever you feel the call, seize it…
Postponement may cause the opportunity to pass and the zeal in the heart to fade…
The opportunity was lost before Felix the governor, though he was affected by Paul’s words about righteousness, self-control, and judgment (Acts 24:25). And the opportunity was lost for Agrippa the king when he heard the apostle speak about faith in Christ (Acts 26:28).
A person may hear a sermon, be deeply moved, and resolve to change his life. But by postponing and delaying the action, the opportunity and the effect of the sermon are lost!
You have the minute you are in, but you do not guarantee the next hour, nor tomorrow and its unknown battles.
The bride of the Song was moved by the voice of her Beloved—our Beloved—leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills… But when she delayed in opening to Him, “He had turned away and gone”… And she said in regret: “I sought him, but I did not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer” (Song 5:6)…
Grace often knocks at your door… but its work in you depends on your response.
Your delay in responding to the visit of grace may deprive you of its effect.
For God does not force you to love Him; He wants your will to respond to His call.
Your postponement of walking with God may lead to a kind of withdrawal—partial or temporary—during which you feel how much you have lost, so you do not delay again…
Thus if God works in your heart again, do not return to negligence. For negligence indicates hardness of heart, and the apostle says: “If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 3:15).
A hardened heart is not quickly affected by God’s love, like a body in which disease has spread and intensified, not responding quickly to medical treatments. Sin is a disease. And as happens in bodily sicknesses, so it is in spiritual and psychological ones:
Delay in treating a disease gives it the opportunity to dominate and makes it harder to heal.
For all this, do not delay repentance nor procrastinate, nor give the devil an opportunity to gain power over you. Whenever you discover an error in yourself, hasten to correct it before it grows inside you and before its remedies become complicated. And the matter is not only from the negative side, but also from the positive.
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Do not delay your spiritual practices and activities, lest your soul become accustomed to laziness and your spiritual exercises become heavy upon you…
When you awaken from sleep, hasten immediately to prayer before the day’s worries and endless conversations overtake you, and before the devil snatches away from your heart the thought of starting the day with prayer, or steals from you the desire to pray. Quickly say with David the Prophet: “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You…”
And do not delay prayer at any time during the day when you feel God’s love in your heart calling you to pray, or the circumstances around you pushing you to pray; lift your heart quickly to God in any situation and in any place… Do not postpone, lest the inner urge be lost.
Remember Lot: when he delayed leaving Sodom, the angels had to hurry him and his family (Gen. 19).
Sometimes God sends an angel to push you toward a spiritual act for your own good or the good of others; do not procrastinate. He who delays leaving a collapsing house may have it fall upon him, and he who delays leaving a burning house may be burned by the flames or choked by the smoke. Likewise, spiritually: he who delays spiritual action, the enemy of good steals the spiritual desire from his heart.
There are matters that are not suitable for delay or prolonged thought; they are clear.
What I said about not delaying prayer applies also to all spiritual means: reading the Bible, meditation, confession, communion, going to church and spiritual meetings. The scourge of scourges is that delay becomes a habit, and laziness extends to all your spiritual works.
Do not delay spiritual work, for the devil does not delay in warring against you…
If you give him a reason within you, he will not hesitate to use it against you for your destruction. Be watchful. And we move to another point: -
Not delaying in responding to the divine call.
Concerning Abraham, the father of the fathers and prophets, it is said that when “he was called, he obeyed” (Heb. 11:8). God commanded him to leave his country, kindred, and father’s house (Gen. 12).
So he went out not knowing where he was going (Heb. 11:8)… He did not delay… Likewise, when God called him to offer his only son as a burnt offering, he did not delay, nor give himself time to think; instead, “Abraham rose early in the morning” (Gen. 22:3) and went to offer his son.
Likewise regarding the call to service:
The Lord called Peter and his brother to become fishers of men; immediately they left the nets and the boat and followed Him. And He called Levi (Matthew); at once he left the tax place and followed Him. He did not delay.
And this prompt call we also see in Zacchaeus: the Lord said to him, “Make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So he made haste, came down, and received Him joyfully (Luke 19:6). His call to repentance became a beginning of service according to later tradition…
Unlike Jonah, who exposed himself to many troubles. This reminds us of another point about delay in pastoral matters…
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Do not delay in pastoral care and service.
The good shepherd, when he found that one sheep had gone astray from his fold, went immediately and searched until he found it (Luke 15).
There are problems needing quick solutions, and souls needing quick rescue lest they perish, and God will require their blood at our hands.
It is known how the Church acted quickly in rescuing its suffering children.
There is also a beautiful example in the swift work of the seraphim in service when Isaiah said, “Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips,” the Scripture says, “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal… and he touched my lips” (Isa. 6:5–7).
He could not bear to hear Isaiah say, “I am undone”…
There must be speed in spiritual work, for yourself and for others.
Look at Paul’s words: “Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?” (2 Cor. 11:29).
Do not delay, then, in your service, lest it become an obstacle to the salvation of others. Beware of delay and postponement in every good work…
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani Newspaper on 23-10-1988.
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