"Commit thy ways unto the Lord; trust also in him; he shall bring it to pass. - Psalm 37:5. (KJV).
Exhortations to "commit" or "to be committed" appear frequently throughout the scriptures. But what do the words really mean? Too often, their meanings are casually interpreted as kinds of half-serious resolutions like people tend to make at New Year's,or something that they will undertake and carry out if they are able to, and if it's not too much trouble. But to "commit" or "to be committed" are by definition not negotiable actions. Funk & Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary defines the act of commitment as devoting oneself unreservedly to something. In practice, therefore, once a commitment is made, there can be no turning back.
Exhortations to "commit" or "to be committed" appear frequently throughout the scriptures. But what do the words really mean? Too often, their meanings are casually interpreted as kinds of half-serious resolutions like people tend to make at New Year's,or something that they will undertake and carry out if they are able to, and if it's not too much trouble. But to "commit" or "to be committed" are by definition not negotiable actions. Funk & Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary defines the act of commitment as devoting oneself unreservedly to something. In practice, therefore, once a commitment is made, there can be no turning back.
I think that a good, everyday illustration of "commitment" is in that of an airplane taking off and landing. When an airplane is taking off, it must pick up enough taxiing speed to enable it to take to the air before it reaches the end of the runway. Once it has attained that required ground speed, it is effectively committed to taking off. There is no choice. The end of the runway is directly in front of it. Similarly, when a plane is landing, it must reduce its air speed and power to the point where it can set down on the tarmac and get stopped before it reaches the end of the runway. When the air speed and power are reduced to the critical point where they could not be regained in time for the plane to go back up, the plane is committed to land. Again, it has no choice. There can be no turning back.
This is how we as Christians must view our Christian lives and our relationship with God. Our commitment to God must be something that we wholeheartedly and unreservedly pursue with our very being.
Either we are fully committed, or we are not committed at all. By definition, there is no such thing as being "somewhat" committed. The beautiful thing about it all, however, is that, with respect to our relationship to God, we don't want to be anything less than committed! This is because it is only in fully and completely committing ourselves to Him that we can find true peace and joy in our Christian lives.
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