Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NLT)
It seems like to me that as a society we are turning more and more to the idea of only doing what we feel like doing. Marriages are ending in divorce like never before, parents are giving up their children (or neglecting them), our work ethic is non-existent; we just want things to be handed to us and we want them to be easy and all packaged up and tied with a pretty bow. When we get tired of it we want to move on to something bigger and better; something that makes us feel good and makes us happy.
We are so consumed with ourselves and our own wants and desires that we have lost sight of true commitment. We want to pseudo-commit: committing as long as it is convenient to us, otherwise count us out. One of my favorite examples of this is a scene from Shrek 2. Shrek has just finished robbing some men because he needs their cloths. He looks at the men standing there in their underwear and says, “Thank you, gentlemen! Someday, I will repay you. Unless, of course, I can't find you or if I forget.”. He has just freed himself from any obligation of ever fulfilling his pseudo-commitment.
It is funny how we want to pseudo-commit to everything we do, yet we get upset when people fail to come through on their pseudo-commitments to us. I think it is way past time that we suck it up and start sticking by our commitments. If you are in a marriage and it is getting rocky, by golly fight for it with all you’ve got. If someone needs you and it is inconvenient to you, stuff your selfish egocentric nature back in the closet and just go help them. If you are at your job or school and there is something you have to do that you don’t want to, do it anyway. Life is too short and eternity is too long to be so selfish and uncaring.
If we are going to claim to follow Jesus, maybe we should start acting like it.
