Commitment

Excerpt from Chuck Colson The Lost Art of Commitment in Christianity Today

Among today's young adults, the unwillingness to commit is alarming, clearly one result of the philosophies of the 1960s and '70s coming to full flower. In 1979, sociologist Robert Bellah conducted extensive interviews to understand what "habits of the heart" defined average Americans. Many had no sense of community or social obligation. They saw the world as a fragmented place of choice and freedom that yielded little meaning or comfort. They even seemed to have lost the language to express commitment to anything besides themselves. Bellah called this "ontological individualism," the belief that the individual is the only source of meaning. Bellah saw how this attitude would, in time, unravel the church and larger society. Since then, we've seen an almost uninterrupted march toward self-focus, affecting all of our institutions but especially crippling work, marriage, and family.

The basic building blocks of society simply erode without commitment. Any sensible society must address this problem by educating people that commitment is the very essence of human relationships.

At the least, we need to teach this in our churches. How can you begin as a Christian without death to self and total commitment to Jesus Christ?

But beyond the ramifications for society as a whole, beyond even the obvious necessity of Christian commitment, when we refuse to commit, we miss out on one of the great joys of life. When we obsess over ourselves, we lose the meaning of life, which is to know and serve God and love and serve our neighbors.