Commitment

Commitment.  The word makes many people think of man and wife, two people joined together, living happily ever after, till death do they part.  There are actually couples who successfully live out that kind of commitment.  In fact, I know of a couple who have been married for over  70  years!

But commitment is not limited to relationships.  And there are commitments that are not entered into voluntarily.  I have a friend who recently had a court judgment go against her.  Without going into the boring details, or even the juicy ones, when the average rational-thinking observer looks at the facts of the case, all logic says that my friend was in the right, and should not have had to pay out any kind of money.  However, looking through legalese-tinted glasses, the scales of justice tipped in favor of the other party.  Since in this instance appeal is not an option, my friend now has a commitment to pay a significant amount of money to the plaintiff.  A commitment that is unfair, unjust, unwarranted, and unwanted. And no "back" or "undo" button to click. 

How is one supposed to deal with an unwanted, unavoidable commitment?
 
It helps a lot to accept that it is what it is.  Life is not always fair. In fact, there are times when fairness is replaced by the absurdity of the belief that we are all the same and every hand dealt is equal to the next. cha-Right!  Not everyone at the poker table can have a royal flush...

And now that this commitment is a part of your life, do the best you can.  Even though it may be painful and you don't like it or agree with the circumstances, work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you're really serving God.

I don't know who E. M. Gray is, but I found a cool quote that is credited to him:  "The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose."  Life is full of commitments.  Some we enter into freely, some are imposed upon us.  When you're plugging away at the latter, do them with purpose.

I don't know about you, but the God that I believe in didn't just create the universe and let things spin helter-skelter out of control while he sits on his cloud and laughs hysterically.  No, the God I believe in not only has sovereign control over the universe but also is very interested in making sure we have the best in our lives.  But dag-nabbit if we don't insist on taking things into our own hands and making a mess of it!  Then when God tries to get us to change our ways and work with him to turn things around  (that's part of what "repentance" and "obedience" is all about) we sometimes have to go through some painful experiences in the process.  But when our obedience comes out of our love for God we can be sure that He will work every detail of our lives into something good, even though we might not see it that way at first.  Like a yellow post-it after a pink one (see my post from a couple of weeks ago).  Or in the words of an old Chinese proverb, "The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials."

And don't wait for someone else to make your life terrific. That's your job.