Commitment is Key to Unlocking Joy

 

God often brings men and women into our lives to lead us on our journey of faith and help us in our expedition to find joy.  Throughout my life, He has been good to show me these shining examples to inspire me and encourage me in my Christian walk.  I wrote about two men last time, Pastor Lovell and Mr. Dahlmann, a pastor and a teacher, both were men of God, committed to serving Him and helping others.  

Pastor Lovell, Mr. Dahlmann, and other joy-filled servants of God I have known over the years share three qualities in common that I believe contributed to their joy, that allowed the Holy Spirit to pour His joy into their hearts.  These are commitment, service and sacrifice.  Let's focus on commitment today.  

Commitment is key to unlocking joy.  Commitment is considered a virtue even in secular circles, but it is not commitment in and of itself that is important.   It is the object of that commitment that makes the difference.  A person may be committed to his company, his hobby, his family, and while there may be some happiness in these, these commitments cannot be the source of desperate joy that we are searching for. 

There is certainly nothing wrong with being committed to a career or a family, but too often we find ourselves committed to the wrong thing entirely and instead of finding joy, we find only pain.  Relationships operate in a similar fashion, how many women have found misery because they made a commitment to a man with low character?  How many men suffer because they committed themselves to an angry and bitter woman?  Dysfunctional commitments lead to despair.  

For most of my life I had a dysfunctional commitment to pornography.  At the time, I would not have used the word "commitment" to describe the relationship, but it is an accurate description nonetheless.  There were rituals that I was committed to, that if I was not able to complete I would become distracted and distraught.  It was as though I had a bizarre one-sided relationship with these women, or these images of women.  They were my surrogate friends, companions, lovers, they helped sooth me when I was sad or angry.  They were there to help me celebrate when I was happy.  It became a sort of obsession, a preoccupation gnawing at my other, honorable commitments.  

If you asked me about it, I would have said that I was not committed to them at all.  But my behavior spoke otherwise.  I was committed to my Savior and my God, but I also had this side commitment as well, which pulled me away from Him.  My heart was divided.  "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."  James 1:8 says.  I most certainly was unstable.  

My heart could not flourish and though from time to time I tasted of the joy of the Lord, I could not find its riches and depths that I craved.  My soul was fractured, unable to contain the gift of joy the Holy Spirit wished to pour into me.  My commitment to acting out eroded my commitment to Christ and it was miserable and unsustainable.  

We often jump into commitments seeking the happiness, and when these commitments are broken, so is our heart.  Most people still demand of their romantic partners complete faithfulness, and when a partner is unfaithful it brings great sorrow and destruction to the relationship.  This instinct for relationship and for commitment is a good thing, but it must first and foremost be focused on Christ.  

No human person was ever meant to bear the full weight of our commitment.  No person can bear that weight alone.  The good news is that no person has to bear that weight alone.  Christ can bear all of our commitment, He can handle the weight of our need and desire.  His strong arms are more than capable to bear it.  To fully commit ourselves to anyone or anything else is to commit to something incomplete and inadequate.  We may find some happiness in these commitments for a time, but ultimately we will find ourselves dissatisfied and looking for more.  

In those moments of dissatisfaction the missing piece we need is Christ.  To find the desperate joy we crave, we must commit ourselves to the only One who is always good, always faithful.  Who will meet our needs and faithfully care for us in the midst of our deepest sorrow.  

The lives of those I have seen filled with great joy have been those whose lives are fully committed to God.  Their hearts and their allegiances were not divided, they were focused on only one thing, the glory of God.   

When Jesus called his disciples, He asked them to leave behind their previous lives.  The fishermen left their nets and boats.  The tax collector left his wealth and position of influence.  The Pharisee forsook his dead religion and prominent position in the religious hierarchy of the day.  They all left their previous ambitions and desires and pursued Christ alone.  Judas aside, there were no divided allegiances among the disciples.  

To be committed to Christ means to forsake all the things that would distract and detract from Christ.  Jesus said, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."(Matthew 10:37-39)  He demands our full attention.  He commands us to focus all of our desire on Him.  There are certainly people, things and activities that we will need to cut off if we are to be fully committed to Christ.  We may lay these aside with a sense of loss, but the glorious treasure we find in Christ awakens a joy in our hearts that outshines any shadow of loss we may feel.