Once upon a time in a land far far away, a man’s word was his bond. You could count on someone to do what they said they would do, when they said they would do it, without fail. When words like responsibility, guarantee, vow, and determination were more than just nouns in sentence structure, but were commonplace in the lives of personal pronouns like you and I. In the words of Archie & Edith Bunker, “Those were the days.” The days of true commitment.
We often misuse or misinterpret that which we do not understand. So let’s further understand commitment.
To be true to one’s promise. Ah, that means don’t make a promise you can’t or won’t follow through with; even if that means you are disadvantaged by making good on the promise. (See Psalms 15:4b)
To abide by one’s contract. If you have an agreement, keep it! This seems to have become very difficult to do. Sometimes the reasons are out of our control, however, there are times we choose not to stick to what we originally agreed upon. Sports figures are prime examples of this. It seems to be the norm that a player wants his contract renegotiated with years left on the original agreement. It’s one thing for your employer to offer a contract extension, but quite another for you to break the binding contract you already have.
To refuse to quit. Here’s another one. It’s easy to tuck tail and run when the going gets tough, as in MARRIAGE! We must settle it going in that divorce is not an option, we can and will work it out. Now there are some circumstances where divorce is necessary, but it is not an escape clause for the lazy.
To deliberately set your course of action. Commitment is a deliberate act. It is intended. No one forced you to join the ushers and greeters ministry. You said that was your anointing. The gifts of God are without repentance. That means that you show up for your assignment with a happy heart even when you don’t feel like it. That brings me to my next point.
Commitment is not commitment until it is tested. Don’t tell me how committed you are, you will be tested and the evidence will be clear. There are three levels of commitment. Perpetrators appear to be committed only until a large enough test comes along. (“I don’t like the auxiliary leader, so I quit.”) Participators commit in part until a test comes to reveal the ceiling of their commitment. ( I worked last Sunday, I’m not greeting two Sundays in a row. I didn’t sign up for this!”) Then there’s the beloved Partners, who are prepared to go above and beyond their original level of commitment. These are the one’s who have taken the vision of another and made it their own. These are they that fulfill the definition of commitment. Anything short of a partner’s definition of commitment is like weak Koolaid. It looks like the real thing but it flunks the taste test. What does your commitment taste like?
© Fredrick F. Nicholson all rights reserved
