bought my first car many years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a new Toyota, but I had one very serious problem after purchasing it; I had never driven a car before. Truth be told, I had never been in a driver’s education program. A friend, completely unaware of my inexperience, dropped me off at the dealership.

To add insult to injury, the Toyota I purchased was a stick shift! I foolishly assumed that if I attempted to drive 100 miles to my home in Alabama, I would become a skilled driver. Fortunately, I not only arrived home alive but also arrived having learned how to get and keep my car in gear.

Too many of us live our lives as I did with my new car experience. We live with insufficient knowledge about living our best lives. We haven’t learned to get and keep our lives in gear. One of the primary reasons why we fail in this endeavor is because we make excuses for doing nothing. We’re like the person in our opening proverb, refusing to plow in the right season (Proverbs 20:4).

Edmond Burke, a British statesman, once declared:

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”

Why should we get our lives in gear? The Bible tells us that after death, each of us will face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). In the judgment, God will bring every work we have done under His scrutiny, even our secret actions (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). This accountability to the One from whom we borrow our heartbeats should make us eager to get and keep our lives in gear.

Proverbs 20:4 reminds us that the lazy person refuses to plow because he or she believes it is too cold (Proverbs 24). The consequence of this is that he/she must beg at harvest time. This proverb gives us a second reason why we should get our lives in gear – namely, the law of sowing and reaping. We are told in the Old Testament that as long as time shall last, seed time and harvest will continue (Genesis 8:22). We are also admonished not to make a fool of God, forgetting that we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7). The sluggard chooses a harvest that is so sparse, he or she has to beg.

How can we get our lives in gear? I recommend we implement the following principles:

• Remember the present is intimately related to the future.
• Understand life’s plowing time is the season of preparation.
• Suspect the easy road is generally the wrong one.

First, remember the present is intimately related to the future. The Bible challenges us to remember that now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Scripture also challenges us to not harden our hearts on the day God prompts us to obey (Hebrews 3:15). One inference to be drawn from these two biblical observations is to live in day-tight compartments (Matthew 6:34), remembering the close connection between our now and then.

Second, you can get your life in gear by understanding life’s plowing time is the season of preparation. We cannot reap before we plant. We can also miss the harvest if we plow at the wrong time. We are told that the harvest can pass, the summer can end and we have missed salvation (Jeremiah 8:20). This season of plowing is best in life’s morning; hence, we are admonished to remember God in our youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

Third, to get our life in gear, suspect the easy road is generally the wrong one. The Bible speaks of a man who built his house on sand and lost it when the storm came. Another man built his house on rock, and the home withstood the storm (Matthew 7:24-27). It is easier to build one’s house on sand than on rock, but the easy way is rarely the correct one. The Bible tells us that the road to destruction is broad and well populated, but that the way to life is narrow. Few people walk on that narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14).