The Adventure of Commitment

The idea of commitment has become a cliche.  But what is a cliche if not a truth with the edges worn off?  Everywhere I look I see lack of commitment–to marriage, to church, to all sorts of relationships.  It seems to be the fruit born of the philosophies that sprang up in the sixties and seventies.  The Ipod generation, picking only what it wants and tossing the rest, didn’t appear in a vacuum. 

Commitment is an adventure.  I don’t mean a movie where the bullets always miss the hero and a thrilling musical score cues his next move.  I mean an adventure–a hazardous journey of uncertain outcome.   There are resolutions to a variety of stories along the way, but we won’t see how some of them come out.  I’ve got several unresolved stories in my life.  I’m still waiting to see their denouement.  What’s more,  the big story itself doesn’t end until…well, til death do us part. 

It takes guts to walk that walk.  It takes courage to make a commitment.  It sometimes takes all you’ve got to keep it.  And our reward?  Chuck Colson has a good piece at Christianity Today that not only addresses the issue of commitment but suggests the benefits thereof: 

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/august/10.49.html