Lack of Preparation

Yesterday afternoon, Kathy and I got home, turned off the car engine, and just sat there enjoying the cool evening.  There was a new crispness in the air.  Summer had lost its hot grip and cooler temperatures were on the way.  I got out of the car and began picking up pine cones in the back yard - an unending task.  Kathy leaned back in the seat enjoying the last rays of the sun that struggled through the tree limbs.  After gathering four bucket-fulls of pine cones, I dumped them into two garbage bags, and threw them into the back of my pick-up truck.  I rounded up scrap wood pieces dumping them beside the pine cone bags.  I pulled out Kathy’s wheelchair and took her into the house.  I was exhausted and went to bed.  Bad idea.  I was tired, but I should have finished my evening regimen.  I woke up at 4 am this morning, not prepared for the day.  I couldn’t find my car keys.  I had to hurry downstairs to get a load of clothes out of the dryer so that I could put the washed load into the dryer so that I could put dirty clothes into the washer.  I ran outside (into the cold, dark morning) and searched the truck for my keys.  No luck.  I retraced my steps looking all over the garage and workbench.  After another search of the kitchen and bedroom, still no keys.  I finally found them in the car ... with windows open and the inside windshield all fogged up.  I started the car, rolled up the windows, rushed back inside to finish getting Kathy’s dialysis bag ready.  When we finally rolled out of the driveway, we were fifteen minutes late.  And all because I was too tired the night before to finish my nightly preparations.  Solomon said in Proverbs 15:19, “The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.”  My slack evening had multiplied my grief the next morning.  Running around searching for my keys was like running through a thorny hedgerow: painful and non-productive.  Hey, the next time I am tempted to crash early, I hope that I remember the frustration of this morning.  It wasn’t worth the early sleep.  Not at all.