Do the Right Thing...at the Right Time

I once heard a powerful sermon preached by Rev. William D. Watley, Ph. D. of St. James A.M.E. Church in Newark, NJ. He really hit close to home when he declared, “If you do what you have to do when you have to do it, then you can do what you want to do when you want to do it.”

Many of us find ourselves inundated with the “have to dos.” We have to do the laundry. We have to get the car inspected. We have to finish that next chapter of the novel. The list goes on. And too often, we find ourselves putting off these things until later. Then we wonder why we often feel so overwhelmed, stressed out, and pressed for time.

The truth is, there is a time for everything, as a popular passage tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:1–8. Remember—whenever we put off a responsibility, we may lose out on an opportunity for ourselves or miss a chance to be a blessing to someone else.

I’m going to do what I have to do when I have to do it, so I can do what I want to do when I want to do it.