Commitment: A Disappearing Animal

Commitment: A Disappearing Animal Kelly Durant

2 Samuel 24:24 And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

2. There is a sad story in one of the old classic novels about a couple crazy in love with each other. These older teens were always together, happy as can be, and engaged to be married. Everything seemed to be perfect, but it was not. One day John started seeing black dots that would not go away. He went to the ophthalmologist and he told him he was losing his sight and that he would be totally blind in about six months. He was heartbroken and went to tell Mary his sad news hoping to be comforted. He said, “I love you and we have no secrets” so he told her about his eyes. But instead of her hand gripping his harder instead she let go and she was silent. He asked, ”What’s wrong? Talk to me!” After a minute of silence she said, “Well this is goodbye, I hope your life goes well, I could never marry a blind man!”

Imagine, so in love, yet so selfish and uncommitted! What an illustration to describe many situations today! Maybe someone close to you is being uncommitted and selfish! This type of lack of love and commitment from those close to us is what is killing us all inside. It disrupts us spiritually and consequently sickens us physically! A personal experience; my wife and I became very disillusioned with people when working with the deaf community. Our oldest son Paul was born deaf and in Bolivia and Colombia we worked closely with the deaf schools and teachers to learn sign language which we used later to minister to other deaf sharing Jesus interpreting the messages and songs to everyone. It was a special time raising our son Paul; many extra hours of our day were spent on transporting and studying with him. We met with other parents and we were saddened to learn about how most deaf children are abandoned and raised by a single parent.

Our commitment to Paul was rewarded as he grew up to study hard, marry, and work 2 jobs to support his family of 2 sons ages 9 and 10! He is a responsible father and husband, shares his Christian faith all the time with his deaf friends, and he also likes to be funny and have fun! What peace we have to know that today he lives well! Parents that abandons an impaired child are criminal in my books and they are miss out on the blessings of seeing their own blood become prosperous and blessed! Deaf or impaired children (with autism, etc.) are not the difficult people, it is the parents! More than half of the parents abandon home when they find out that they have an impaired child as they do not want the responsibility and commitment of raising them! Only about 1 in every 4 parents ever learn sign language! In general I am expressing my disillusionment with the cruelty of people not committed to their own families, mates and children. How can you not be helping and giving a child the time and physical support needed? Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

3. This lack of dedication is also a parallel to the lack of spiritual commitment many people have in relation to obeying God; of not living a life pure committed and obedient to the Word of God! Their pleasures of sin come first! Abandonment and divorce is not just a statistic for the deaf community alone, but it is also about the same number in this country for the general populous, Christian or non-Christian, healthy or special. If a person in love has only have a 50/50 chance of keeping the one they love, then a majority of the people today do not even want to bother with any commitment of getting married! In the end it is this undeserved privilege of non-commitment that presets families and relationships up for failure. If you are building a house you need to put some cement of faith and values underneath it to have a lasting foundation, right? If not, for sure it will fall and fail due to a lack of having a supernatural strength that overrides all human values of selfishness, inadequacy, and non-commitment.

Commitment involves loyalty and trust and this is something from God that money cannot buy! How many rich and famous stars get a love for a while only to discover later that this love wants to divorce and take millions? Not even money can make people be committed and loyal until death do them part! So many people selfishly leave one for another for their own personal interests, so what outcomes do we observe? The uncommitted live their lives criminal as serial heartbreakers stealing away the life of another and murdering another’s inspiration and motive to live! Why is there no heart? Because they have no fear of God, consequences, hell or of nothing and they are of the father the devil and his works they will do as Jesus expressed here in John…