Have you ever thought about the question, “How committed are you”? We want to devote ourselves to a task, a goal, a dream and ultimately to serving Christ. We say we are committed to doing so. How do we measure that commitment? How do we move it from an “it would be nice to be this way” to a “this is who I am”?
I submit that commitment is much like integrity; there are no degrees of either. Just as a person either has integrity or doesn’t, a person is either committed or they aren’t; you can’t be partially committed. To commit to something is to do it; to be committed to a cause is to throw your all into it. You can’t be committed to run ten miles and quit at five. That’s not commitment! Marriage is a commitment. For those who are married, what if we treated that relationship with the same “amount” of commitment that we give to other areas of our lives? You see there’s no such thing as an “amount” of commitment. Committing to something is to give your all, not your part. It is closely intertwined with integrity in that what you say you will do, you do.
Now certainly if we commit to something that later proves to be a mistake, we should drop that commitment. So if commitment means to always see it through, but it’s okay to abandon commitment when we’ve made a mistake, how do we know when it’s okay to not follow through? That decision has to be guided by our overarching value system. Does it align with the Kingdom mission of Christ, or worse yet, does it oppose that mission? Let that always be your guiding principle. Now the best idea would be to check your value system before ever making a commitment. A commitment is a solemn vow; Jesus said to let our “yes be yes”. Again this is the integrity issue. If we are going to commit to something, we should be fully prepared and willing to see that commitment through to completion. This principle will allow us to live a life according to the principles taught by Jesus.
How is your commitment to Christ? Are you committed to following Him or are you just providing lip service? If we claim to be committed and do not follow Him with all that we are, then we are liars and lack integrity. To be seen as a liar and to lack integrity in our day to day lives is bad enough, but is that how we present ourselves to our Lord? There is no such thing as being partially committed to Christ. If we are to be committed we must throw ourselves into walking in His ways, and do so with true reckless abandon. If we are committed to Christ, we must love everyone at all times; we must actively seek to help others, to show kindness in everything we do. Failing does not disqualify our commitment; we often fail as we endeavor to fulfill commitments. With each failure, we must quickly repent, dust ourselves off, get up and be about our committed purpose again.
Commit today to follow Christ. Live your commitment by loving others, caring for their needs and giving all you have to pursue the mission of the Kingdom. There is no half-way, no partial commitment if you should choose to follow Christ. He demands it all; are we ready to commit to that demand?