This story has gripped the nations ten year olds for over a decade. If you've not had the pleasure here it is in short form:

Two guys (Andy & Terry, who write the book) live in a fantastical thirteen storey treehouse and spend most of their days putting off writing the book.

It has fab illustrations and the most ingenious inventions that every kid would die to have in their room. But perhaps the most telling overall theme of the book is Andy and Terry's lack of motivation to do anything other than mess around, and here we very quickly find our human truth - we put off doing what we ought to do.

While my house does not have thirteen floors (thank goodness), nor does it contain a room full of pillows, a bowling alley, a lemonade fountain or a man eating shark tank... I seem to still have the same problem as Andy and Terry. Despite there being very little in the way of cool attractions in my house I still do not so what I ought to do. Instead I do other stuff to justify not doing the stuff I should.

The looming deadline of the book they have to write is not enough to motivate Andy & Terry to get it done. They know they should, but they don't. And they justify their lack of effort by doing other things like hatching sea monkeys and turning a cat into a canary.

My problem of 'putting off' is far more serious than this however. I put off not just the mundane stuff but the important in equal measure. Speaking to that new person in church on a Sunday morning (welcoming strangers) - they were just to far away from me to get to. Checking up on that person who I know has been struggling (bearing another's burdens) - I did send a generic Bible verse. Letting my anger get the better of me (instead of putting it away with my malice and bitterness) - well, my buttons really did get pressed that day. Being slow to listen and quick to speak (!) - I just needed to cut to the chase on this one. All off these things put off and excused. Not to mention the sins that are so prevalent in my day to day I can't possibly be expected to fight these as well, right?

So what does God say about this putting off?

Here's the Bible truth - our sins of omission (not doing what we know we should do) are sins nonetheless. I feel they are just easier to justify committing. I can tell myself I will do it - another day. That I did something else equally worthwhile. But those things aren't true. I just didn't do them, even though I knew I should have. It is deliberate disobedience wrapped in fancy paper. The truth is I make time and effort for the things I think are worth my while, and when I chose to not do something I should, then I am saying it's not worth my time. The people I don't care for, the places I avoid, the conversations I don't end up having, not worth my time. And when you see it like that, it's pitiful.

It's pitiful because these people, and places and conversations are God ordained, God commanded, blessings. And I say I don't want them, that I have something better to do. And this is because I have developed a skewed picture of Jesus. I have forgotten the price He paid, the love He has, the delight He takes in each one of His children, including me. I begin to think that He is there to only serve my best interests. That His love can be manipulated to my will. And that if I have to do these things then He must not really be all that He says He is.

The truth is far more beautiful. Jesus cares far more, loves harder than I can ever imagine. He never asks more than I can handle and He does it all for His glory and my good. My desire to please the Lord should be overflowing, but my vision of Him becomes so muddied that I question God's goodness - and just like that I am right back in the garden listening to the snake and eating whatever I want. How many times I have read the account of the Fall and willed Eve to walk away when the snake starts talking. But how many times I have sat and listened to him spin me the same yarn.

I need reminding, constantly, that God's will is the best. That His commands are good and that He is not trying to trick me out of something better. I need to come out of my treehouse and know that what is on offer instead is all I need, miraculoulsy and graciously provided.