Belief in Commitment

I’m a Christian.  More than that, I am a Christian with a religious affiliation.  I have many Christian friends but to have a particular faith to which I ascribe, a set of tenets and doctrines to which I adhere, well that is a bit taboo nowadays.

So, I find myself defending my religion, a lot.  Letting my friends know that even though my beliefs are this, that and the other I still love and care for all mankind.  I shouldn’t have to do this but I do.  I had an epiphany recently.  I have these sometimes.  They are neither especially wise nor particularly novel but they are mine.  Take them as you like.

I found myself defending my faith for the umpteenth time and came up with the reason, my reason, why I don’t attend one of the big box non-denominational’s, (not that there’s anything wrong with them), and I came up with this.  Commitment.

I know, it’s got to be more than that, right.  Ok.  It’s a little more than that.  See, it’s about standing up for what you believe in the face of a world that is constantly in flux.  It is about saying, yes, that is in fact something that is important to me.  It is about a relationship that is forever whether the times change, whether the styles change, whether the friends, family members and those we thought would share a pew with us forever, well, don’t anymore.

The world says that it is all about love.  Love is great.  We can love each other to our heart’s content but without a bit of rules and a few boundaries we are setting ourselves up for temptation and straying and maybe there is something over there that looks better and maybe that side of the fence has something I need.  There may not be anything inherently wrong on the other side but we should be buckling down to our Bibles, our prayer, our God.  We should be committed to something.

We live in a confused time.  Commitment is difficult at the best of times.  And religion is a type of commitment, a wholehearted commitment to God our Father.  That’s huge.  We can’t even commit to each other.  Relationships are breaking apart and there is fighting over commitments that are questionable and children are confused about the word commitment because they haven’t seen a good example of it yet.

Yeah, I get why religion is failing all around us.  I get why my church and others like it struggle.  I get why the big box churches appeal.  They don’t ask for much commitment.  But then again, when the time comes for real knees to the ground, cries to the heaven, when all around is falling apart, my trust is in God because He has been committed to me from the start.