Commitment…

Commitment, that word scares a lot of people.  Most people think of relationships when they hear that word, but there are so many things we should commit to. 

I used to be scared to commit to anything.  I always left myself an out.  I was vague when I was pressed to decide on anything.  I feared being stuck in a bad decision, but that fear kept me from making good ones.

Making decisions is hard when you first start making them.  You decide something and then worry if you made the correct decision.  As time goes on, and if you practice, making decisions becomes easier than being flighty.  You become a rock in the running river of life.  You become constant for others who are simply drifting through their lives, just as you were at one point.  Being bold enough to make the decision and then stand by it takes courage, and wisdom.  Courage comes from within each of us and cannot be taught.  Wisdom comes with time and experience making, let’s just say, questionable decisions.

I know in my younger years I operated simply on feelings and what I wanted at that moment.  There were no big picture plans, or even next week’s plans most of the time.  I was ignorant of the fact that there is more to life than the present.  We should all have a big picture in mind as we negotiate our lives.  I just didn’t.  I could blame it on a few different things, but it really doesn’t matter.  It comes down to my decision not to make decisions for myself, and the ones I did make simply were short-sighted and several of them made my life harder than it should have been.

The last few years have encouraged me to grow in this idea of decision making and committing to things that are good in my life.  The biggest thing I have committed myself is to always be willing to change directions or pivot an idea that isn’t working.  I don’t want to be the one who does something a certain way only because it has been that way for a long time.  I want to be the one who is consistently improving everything I touch.  With that constant change comes in inevitable failure, but that just means you are trying.  Most people fear failure more than anything, but don’t realize they will never grow if they don’t have at least the risk of failing.

I like to think of failure as a prerequisite to success.  True success that matters typically comes after falling short a few times.  If you have instant success, it typically just delays your failure and it becomes harder to get back into the groove of success because you didn’t grind it out the first time, and that failure typically comes from a lack of decision making, and a lack of commitment. 

Psalms 37:5 (NLT)

Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.

Being completely honest, committing myself to following Jesus has been the best decision I have ever made, and also the hardest.  It is easy to give into the feeling in the moment and pray the prayer of salvation, but it’s a different story trying to live up to the words in the bible, especially as a man.  I have my struggles and my challenges, but I have committed myself to doing things that glorify him, even when they are hard and uncomfortable. 

I hope you can take a look at yourself this week and see what you are committing yourself to.  If you are like I used to be, find something small that is good for you to commit to and let it snowball in your life.