Keep your commitments …

Our culture has redefined commitment, and not in a good way.

Even if we said we would do something, what we really meant is as long as it’s fun or enjoyable, as long as it’s personally rewarding, as long as it’s easy, as long as it ISN’T challenging, as long as it doesn’t cost us anything, and (especially) as long as it’s convenient, THEN we’ll probably do what we said we would do.

Even then, we often don’t put forth our best effort.

We’ve come to believe that there are a myriad of “reasons” (excuses) that are perfectly acceptable for NOT doing what we said we would — for not keeping our commitments. Even serious ones, like the story reported in the Kronen Zeitung newspaper about a man who faced charges of bigamy from his “girlfriend” 11 years after getting married “on a whim” at a Las Vegas wedding chapel …

The man took his girlfriend to Las Vegas in 2004, and while touring the city they decided spontaneously to tie the knot at a White Wedding Chapel.

“It cost $25. There was a Reverend who asked us only the question ‘Do you believe in God?’ That’s it,” said the man. Neither of them took the ceremony seriously at the time, and their relationship broke up a short time later.

Eleven years later, the now 55-year-old man had married another woman, and when registering the marriage, failed to mention the previous ceremony, considering it more of a joke than a real commitment.

Unfortunately, his not quite ex-wife caught wind of his new marriage, and decided to inform the authorities that the man was still married at the time of his second wedding. As a result, he was called this week to face a judge in the Regional Court of Wiener Neustadt.

When the judge asked the man why he didn’t mention the Vegas wedding in the registration process he said, “I felt that I was not married. I didn’t think that the ceremony in Vegas had legal validity in Austria.”

Despite this excuse, he was found guilty of bigamy and fined 5,000 euros.

When it comes to the topic of making and keeping commitments, the Bible doesn’t dispense a foggy opinion we so often do. First, scripture warns us not to make careless commitments …

“Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few,” Ecclesiastes 5:2.

And then Jesus gets very blunt about meaning what we say …

“Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.” – Matthew 5:37.

In the eyes of Jesus, it is evil to say you will do something and not mean it! The scary thing is, saying one thing while not really meaning it is something that has become commonplace in our culture, including among professing Christians. But Jesus teaches us that we should have no means of retreat to our commitments.

One writer provides a graphic tale of how we need to remove the potential retreats from our commitments …

When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success of his military venture. Ordering his men to march to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover, he commanded them to look down at the water below. To their amazement, they saw every ship in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames. Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat. Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but to advance and conquer! And that is exactly what they did.

If you say you will do something, do it! And not begrudgingly, but with enthusiasm as if you’re carrying out your commitments for the Lord.

Is your “yes” only a yes? Can people count on you to do what you commit to?

Scotty