Committed vs Unsure: (Audio)
When I was young, maybe 5 or 6, I think, I sat in a dentist office as my parents had their teeth pulled. All of them, essentially. I’m not sure why I have this memory, maybe it was the noise, smell, and sounds of drills and moans of patients. Maybe, just maybe I was there for one of their many trips to and from the dentist and I wasn’t there for the live event.
Regardless. It is a pervasive memory.
But not enough of a memory to protect my teeth from heading the same route. It’s true, your DNA may give you an excellent set of teeth and you never struggle to keep them from waving goodbye. Or, you may do things that will cause them to fail early. Why? Maybe the memory doesn’t keep you from bad habits, or your DNA just isn’t strong enough to prevent their failure.
I’ve been somewhere in between the two.
As a child mom says I fell and hit the coffee table with my front tooth and even after the big boy teeth came in that one tooth was still slightly crooked. Just enough so I knew it. But as I grew, my teeth were strong and healthy until I started getting out on my own, and then Dr. Pepper and Milk Duds probably just about did them in.
Not Coffee. It’s a vegetable and I’m sticking with that story!
Through the years I’ve spent more time and money parked in the dentist chair than I should have had to. My wisdom teeth came out around age 40 and my intelligence took a nose dive, I think!
But then, implants came along and replacement teeth became a little easier to deal with. Time will tell their longevity, but it is nice to have a feeling of permanency.
Sitting in my dental chair this morning, I thought about the things we commit to and those things we hesitate to give our undivided self to. It was one of those weird thinking sessions in between some procedures. What makes you commit to an idea, event or person, and what makes you guarded enough to keep you on the fence teetering between Yes and No?
Pull the trigger on getting that tooth pulled,
and you’ve made a commitment that probably be halted,
up and until the dentist gives a final yank!
Maybe this is part of the dilemma. You never really commit until it’s past the point of no return! It’s like saying yes to the parachute dare (which I hope to do someday), but you can back out until they push you out screaming and clawing to get back in!
Commitment comes with the idea that you are following through no matter the consequences!
When we said “I Do” and “…till death you do part…”
there has never been any hesitation in the commitment made nearly 43 years ago!
There is not an exit clause that allows me to dash back to the safety of my single years!
Nor is there a better path than what God intended for me to have chosen to live and enjoy for the rest of my life.
Nor am I looking for a way to un-zipper our “…ties that bind…”.
That being said, we often look for an escape route to get away from some of the choices we’ve made. The fires in California tell us again, you need to have a safe path to get away from the potential carnage heading your way. Depending on the weather conditions you probably need multiple exit points so you can react properly in a moments notice. If you miss the moment of exit, then who knows what the results may be.
I’m interested in making good choices, choosing good paths and good directions to go when the moment declares it’s necessary. At the same time, I’m not interested in undoing that which God has ordered for my life. (Psalms 37:23) I want to be good and true to the path set before me. I want to support my commitments in an honest and loving way.
How about you? What’s your commitment level to those things you said “Yes” to a long time ago?