Redefining Commitment

In Sickness & In Health

Marriage vows are some of the most beautiful words a person may ever speak. But once the honeymoon is over, those same words can begin to chafe like handcuffs. In a time in which autonomy, freedom, and self-determination are valuable commodities, commitment can feel like a form of poverty. You may mourn the loss of “me” and resent the birth of “we” you initiated with those marriage vows.

But what if our perceived freedom to pursue our desires is actually enslavement to the tyranny of self? What if commitment could be redefined as the source of freedom, rather than a life-sentence?

Commitment can be a cage. But it can also be the key to experiencing the ultimate freedom of being known and still loved, found out and still forgiven. We will never satisfy the endless needs and wants of our own hearts, but we are offered the escape hatch of committing to love and serve someone else instead. Commitment is our divinely-designed, earth-bound facsimile of Jesus’ sacrifice for and loyalty to an undeserving human race. He knows us, and he loves us anyway. Because of his example, both the mundane daily duties and the grand blazes of heroic sacrifice are possible within our relationships. We are free to commit.