Welcome to my blog, or should I say to the ramblings of an old man. I doubt that my ramblings are of much value, but at least I have an opportunity to share them.  So, please be kind and humor me. If nothing else of value stands out in these thoughts, I hope that you at least sense the value I place on a daily walk with the Lord.  That walk is what has provided me with motivation and a sense of purpose throughout my lifetime.  My prayer is that you, too, are experiencing this direction and joy in daily living which is available to everyone who puts his trust in Christ.  So, thanks again for joining me.  Please don't go without leaving some comments here so I can get to know you better as our paths intersect today in this blog.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Commitment

Is commitment becoming a lost character trait?  I hear stories about community organizations and service groups who are having trouble operating because older members are no longer well enough to serve and younger folks won't join or make a commitment.  Many churches have similar problems with uncommitted laypersons so often professional help must be hired to provide services - just look at the growing size of church staffs.  Now part of it is the economy and the increase in the number of working women.  Family lives have changed.  But part of it is also our desires for "material things" and recreation.  Many younger folks just don't want to be tied down - they want to head to the shore, or the mountains, or the parks when they aren't working.  Faithfulness to the church and worship services is no longer a priority - commitment is lacking in my estimation.  Now not everything is that way.  We have worked with our Awana program for 27 years and we have had many committed leaders.  In fact we have 26 who have served 15 or more years.  Of these 19 have served for 20 or more years and 8 of these for 25 or more years.  That is commitment.  And most of our 80 staff members each year are there to serve almost every Wednesday night.   Now maybe it is also a generational thing.  We know of a church softball team where some members voted against using a league rule that would have allowed them to add a few nonchurch players to their roster.  I can't fault their vote as long as those voting were willing to be faithful and committed to the team.  So what happened?  Well many of these players have left their team down by not being faithful.  They all had the game schedule before the season began so they could have made a commitment to arrange their personal schedules to be there.  But most nights they have had to play without some regulars and a few times they have not even had any extra players available.  For one key game, against the team that had tied them for first place, five starters and several substitutes failed to show up.  As a result, the team had to play their coach to field a team and they were forced to play this key game with only nine instead of ten players.  So I wonder if commitment is becoming a lost trait, especially with the younger generation.  I was always taught that if I gave my word to be part of a team, or an outreach, or a church ministry, I was to give 100%.  Anything less was unacceptable.  It is even worse if this lack of commitment should involve unfaithfulness in attending, giving, or serving in a ministry.  Then the judge of our commitment is not a teammate or a friend or an observer, but the Lord!

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