Even though most of my classes this semester are online and asynchronous, that doesn't mean that the have the kind of flexibility I've come to expect from online classes. I typically like to do homework early in the week. If an assignment is due on Wednesday or Friday, I try to get it done by Monday or Tuesday. However, that's not an option this time around. This time, my assignments don't become available, in many cases, until the day before they're due. I can read ahead and study ahead, but I can't get the work done until the day before it's due. Instead of a seven-day window, wherein I can do that week's homework at any time that week, I have a two-day window, wherein I have to do the homework either one day or the next day, or I'm out of luck. Essentially, instead of being able to work early, like previous semesters, I now need to work regularly instead.
And frankly, we've always had to do that. There are plenty of tasks that we have to do on the day we have to do them, and starting early isn't an option. Sure, I can make a backlog of Blog Posts, writing ahead of schedule, but that doesn't change the fact that, ideally, spiritual growth happens day by day. We can't front-load our eternal salvation. We need to work at it consistently, growing little by little, like a plant. If you give a plant a year's supply of rain and a year's supply of sunlight, all in one day, that plant will almost certainly die. Similarly, we too physically cannot accomplish all the spiritual growth of our lifetimes in one sitting. We need to work at it consistently and make our spiritual progress over time.
I'm not looking forward to having to spread my homework across the week and only do it the day before it's due. That seems stressful to me. Yet, that's what has to be done, because this semester, like life, requires us to work consistently rather than early.
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