Commitment Stuart L. Brogden, June 2002
Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything; tutors, flash cards, special learning centers, everything they could think of. Finally, in a last ditch effort, they enrolled him in the local Catholic School.
After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't kiss his mother hello, but instead went straight to his room and started studying. When his mother went up to check, she found books and papers spread out all over the room and Tommy hard at work.
To her further amazement, the minute he finished dinner he marched back to his room without a word and hit the books as hard as before.
This went on day after day, for the entire first term until Tommy finally brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table, went on up to his room, and hit the books. With some trepidation, his mom looked at it, but to her surprise and relief, little Tommy had an "A" in math.
Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she went up to his room and asked "Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?” Tommy shook his head. "Well then," she continued, "was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms, WHAT was it?"
Tommy just looked at her and said, "On the first day of school, when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren't fooling around."
You see, Tommy developed a COMMITMENT that changed his life! The funny part is that we all know Tommy’s commitment was based on a misunderstanding,
Commitment is like faith in several ways. Like faith, the object or reason for your commitment is what determines how significant it is. Like faith, commitment is important, and must be focused on Christ.
Here’s the unpleasant reality – behavior doesn’t necessarily reveal the heart. Tommy’s mother wanted him to do better in math. But no parent would want his child to have Tommy’s motivation as the reason for the proper behavior. That funny story points out a major problem in many people’s lives: they make major commitments based on misconceptions, we do the right thing for the wrong reason. When circumstances get difficult, the false premise of our commitment causes it to crumble. Like a house built on sand. Our boy Tommy probably lost his zeal for math after a few semesters. He may have found the truth about the “guy nailed to the plus sign”. I know in my own life, commitments made by me, without regard for God’s will, always get broken.
I took a job in Houston nearly fours years ago based on a misconception of what my job was going to be. Moved my family from our home of 13 years and went into a strange new industry only to find out my job wasn’t the high profile, exciting, challenging opportunity I expected. Most of the time, it has been dreary, tedious, and the biggest challenge was getting out of bed. But I had made a commitment to my company to do the work and had made an implicit commitment to my family – that we would be staying in Houston for the foreseeable future. But I might not have made those commitments had I a more accurate understanding of the job I was offered.
Consider marriage, the most serious, sacred commitment one person can make to another person. So many marriages end in divorce and so often the reason – more properly, the excuse – is irreconcilable differences. Many people get married with prenuptial agreements in place. Plans already made and documented, detailing who gets what WHEN they divorced. These folk are planning to fail. Many people get married not realizing God is the author of the institution - whether they believe in Him or not. They get married thinking they are going to be able to change their mate into their own image. They get married thinking their own faults will be overlooked but they won’t overlook their mate’s. All of these misconceptions lead to unrealized expectations and frustrations. And failure. The sacred commitment is abandoned. This happens in the church as often as outside the church. By people focused on self, not Christ.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines commitment as “A pledge to do. The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person.” Why is it that our “pledge” to cherish until death often fails? Do we let the state of our emotions rule our intellect, creating irreconcilable differences where the Lord intended complimentary strengths and weaknesses? Many do, and the “life-long” commitment is abandoned.
Consider the case of three teenagers, named Hananiah, to Mishael, and Azariah. The king ordered all his people to worship an idol and these boys were committed to their God – not his – so they refused. The king had the boys brought before him and told them to bow down to the idol or be burned to death in the furnace. These teenagers, you know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Nebby was committed. He threw the boys into the furnace. But God had a plan working that Nebby could not see and did not anticipate, one that ultimately changed Nebby’s plans to line up with God’s.
Mere commitment might have told them there were irreconcilable differences between their religion and life itself. They could have rationalized this one compromise, because commitments are made to be broken. But their commitment had been left behind; they had surrendered their rights - abandoned their lives - to God and could not go back. Regardless of the outcome. That’s the line which we must cross – leaving the future to God, obeying Him despite the consequences.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines abandon as “To surrender one’s right; give up entirely. To yield oneself completely.”
Commitment is good, but in our language today, it implies too much ongoing effort on our part. It is too often bound up in circumstances that shift as sand on the beach during a hurricane. As such, commitment falls short, leaving us free to re-evaluate our decision and change it as circumstances warrant. The call of Christ is for you and me to yield completely – no turning back. And commitment cannot take us as far as Christ would have us go in our walk. Like going to Europe – you can drive yourself to the airport, but you will have to trust completely in the airplane and its crew to get you across the ocean.
When your pastor calls upon you to make a commitment for Christ, he’s telling you to abandon your life to Christ. A pastor at my church in Houston says “God didn’t invade planet Earth to change your life, He came to kill you!” Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25) You cannot accept His gift of salvation on your terms – with an escape clause or an opportunity to bail out if times get tough. Life in Christ is complete - on His terms. With His unconditional love, Christ calls us to an unconditional surrender. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20” I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Nobody who was ever crucified lived. And there’s no turning back. Is your commitment strong enough to ensure you will never turn back? Mine isn’t and neither is yours. We’re men, our will is insufficient. As Dirty Harry puts it, “A man’s gotta know his limitations.”
This is standard Jesus set with His own life. Philippians 2:6-8 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!” Yes, Christ was committed – perfectly. And there’s the rub – our commitments, and the efforts to keep them, are imperfect.
What was so special about the death of Christ that goes beyond commitment? He was arrested and dragged all over town during the dead of night, repeatedly beaten and mocked through six separate trails. Whipped 39 times with a whip of leather with knots holding bits of bone or balls of lead. Romans had scourging down to science, bringing the victim as close to death as possible. The balls bruised, the leather thongs cut open the bruises. Continued beating tore into muscles, tearing them such that bleeding flesh hung in quivering ribbons. Arteries, veins and muscles were torn open, at times even entrails were laid bare. Normally, a victim would faint after two and half minutes.
How many of us would find a way out of a commitment before we got to the whip? And He had yet to face the cross.
Check out T.W. Hunt’s book, “The Mind of Christ” – Chapter 9, for a thorough examination of His sacrifice.
Prior to His arrest, Christ prayed "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Then He was led away, beaten, and nailed to the cross.
Abandon: “To surrender one’s right; give up entirely. To yield oneself completely.” Not my will, but His. This is the standard, the call of Christ to men.
Professional athletes are committed. They work hard, give of themselves and perform amazing physical feats. But how often do contract disputes, injuries, personal issues get in the way of their commitment? As remarkable as your favorite football player is on the field, his efforts fall short of perfection. Since Troy Aikman cannot predict the future nor control the aging of his own body, his relationship with the Dallas Cowboys is not what he thought it would be this year. In spite of his passionate commitment to play baseball, Daryl Strawberry’s unplanned drug addiction was more powerful. These athletes are wonderfully talented, but they cannot control what is yet to come.
Your marriage will never be what you expected. No matter how hard you work, it’s a commitment that you may not be able to keep. Your life will ever turn out how your planned it. Because we are not in control and cannot see the future, sacred relationships must be marked – controlled - by something that will not change. Something outside yourself, that is true whether you agree with it or not, is true whether you know about it or not. God’s Word is true, will never fail, will never change. Everything crafted by man will fail, will change.
He calls you and me to walk in obedience as sons of the most high King of kings. He says if we love Him we will obey His teachings. I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. We should be able to say, “I’m abandoned to the One who love me and gave Himself that I might have life eternal.” So great a gift - all the world’s riches could not buy it. Such a small price for me to pay – not to earn it, but to demonstrate that He’s given it to me - obey the perfect will of my Father in heaven, rather than my myopic, self destructive will. And He promises peace and joy – something the whole lost world is dying for and cannot deliver. How could we refuse?
When Hernando Cortez landed his Spanish fleet on the shores of Mexico in the spring of 1519, he considered his mission too critical to quit. So when the difficulties in the New World proved to be more than his crews envisioned, he ordered them to burn the ships. It may be that he had heard the legend of a Greek general who torched his ships so his army would not be tempted to retreat in the heat of the battle. Whatever his reason, Cortez took the commitment he and his men had made and turned it into being completely yielded. No turning back - abandoned to the mission.
Why does this matter?
Every man wants to live a life that matters. Every godly man wants to leave a godly legacy. What does it take to do so?
Goodyear. Rockefeller. Pulitzer. Vanderbilt. Morgan. Macy. Gould. Crane. Astor. Names you know. In 1886 some of the East Coast's most prominent millionaires purchased a coastal island near Georgia for a hunting preserve and winter family retreat. Members of the exclusive, clannish Jekyll Island Club controlled one-sixth of the world's wealth, forging together an alliance that virtually controlled America's corporations and government. As an example, in one of the elegant private rooms of the secluded Jekyll Island Clubhouse, top government officials hammered out the first draft of the Federal Reserve Act.
The first transcontinental telephone call was initiated from the Jekyll Island Clubhouse to President Woodrow Wilson in Washington and Alexander Graham Bell in New York. J. P. Morgan twice financed the teetering United States government, staving off federal bankruptcy. The Jekyll Island Club was the absolute highest form of a temporal kingdom. These men were committed – devoted – to worldly success and had achieved it!
Though they once commanded one-sixth of the world's wealth, these power brokers have two things in common with every other man of their era: All their plans have come and gone, and they are all dead.
Today, the Jekyll Island Club is history. Curious visitors wander among a half-dozen restored buildings scattered around the grounds. The overgrown weeds, the peeling paint, the shattered glass - all vividly illustrate the futility of man-made kingdoms. Except those restored for tourists, the posh winter "cottages" lay in ruin, representing the final destiny of all the kingdoms of man.
"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). All the benefits of prosperity are temporal. All the risks of prosperity are eternal. Tread lightly in temporal kingdoms, for all our plans will come to an end, and then we die. The only profit that matters is an eternal one.
What are you committed to? If your commitment is to reform your flesh – compelling yourself to bigger and better things – your focus is on the wrong target and you will fail. Your commitment, if you are to succeed, must be in Christ – plus nothing. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…” “Be anxious for nothing …” Not “Me first!” Where’s your focus? Your commitment? Want success in the battle over your sinful flesh? “Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Steven Curtis Chapman sings a song in which he declares
Empty nets lying there We will abandon it all Not for the sake of a creed or a cause.
At the water's edge, For the sake of the call. Not for a dream or a promise.
Told a story that few could believe. No other reason at all Simply because it is Jesus who calls,
And none could explain But the sake of the call. And if we believe we'll obey.
How some crazy fishermen Wholly devoted to live and to die
Agreed to go where Jesus led. For the sake of the call.
With no thought for
What they would gain.
For Jesus had called them by name
And they answered.
Commitment? Go farther. Mere commitment won’t take you where Christ calls you to go. You want success in your walk with the Savior and your marriage? Deny – abandon – yourself to a higher calling. Are you willing to answer His call? Want to leave a godly legacy? The legacy you leave will be the legacy you live. You don’t build a legacy in the last six months of your life. As the wall of Jerusalem was rebuilt one stone at a time, your godly legacy will be built one day, one decision, at a time. You can’t microwave it, buy it from L.L. Bean, or fake it. Live for Christ! Walk in the spirit and you will fulfill His plan for your life. Only at the end of such a life will you or I have the legacy we yearn to leave for our children and grand children.
In 1898, William Jackson Smart – a Civil War veteran – buried his wife after she died giving birth to their sixth child. He raised the kids as a single dad. In 1909, his grown daughter, Sonora Dodd, heard a Mother’s Day sermon extolling the virtue of moms. She decided to work on dedicating a day to fathers. Marked by many since then, Congress established Father’s Day officially in 1972 – the legacy of a devoted father who made a difference. And you probably never heard of William Jackson Smart before.
Want success that matters? I do. I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back – no turning back!