Remember the old saying, "When things get tough, the tough get going"?
Well today there seems to to be a new twist to it, it goes something like this; "When things get too tough, you should just go".
Whatever happened to committment?
Hernando Cortes had a plan.
He wanted to lead an expedition into Mexico to capture its vast treasures. When he told the Spanish governor his strategy, the governor got so excited that he gave him eleven ships and seven hundred men. Little did the governor know that Cortes had failed to tell him the entire plan.
After months of travel, the eleven ships landed in Veracruz in the spring of 1519. As soon as the men unloaded the ships, Cortes burned the ships.
By burning the ships, Cortes eliminated the options. He didn’t know what he would encounter on his expedition to the interior. He didn’t know the strength of the people he would be fighting. But he did know this: there were now no escape routes for his men. If the fighting got too fierce, or exhausting, there would be no talk of going back to Veracruz and sailing home. In one fell swoop, he had not only eliminated their options but had created an intensely powerful motivation to succeed. Like it or not they were now committed.
Burning your ships expresses commitment. Commitment is saying that no matter what comes in the future, you’re going to stick it out. Commitment means that you have obligated yourself to follow through on your word. A commitment is your personal guarantee that you will do what you promised.
We live in an era where commitment is cheap. It’s cheap in marriage, business, politics, and even in athletics. Commitment is cheap in professional sports when a running back will sign a six-year, multi-million dollar contract, and then stay out of training camp in his trade year because the team won’t renegotiate his contract. Why does he want to renegotiate? He wants to renegotiate because his contract is no longer personally convenient, and he refuses to keep his commitment until he gets his way.
He wanted to lead an expedition into Mexico to capture its vast treasures. When he told the Spanish governor his strategy, the governor got so excited that he gave him eleven ships and seven hundred men. Little did the governor know that Cortes had failed to tell him the entire plan.
After months of travel, the eleven ships landed in Veracruz in the spring of 1519. As soon as the men unloaded the ships, Cortes burned the ships.
By burning the ships, Cortes eliminated the options. He didn’t know what he would encounter on his expedition to the interior. He didn’t know the strength of the people he would be fighting. But he did know this: there were now no escape routes for his men. If the fighting got too fierce, or exhausting, there would be no talk of going back to Veracruz and sailing home. In one fell swoop, he had not only eliminated their options but had created an intensely powerful motivation to succeed. Like it or not they were now committed.
Burning your ships expresses commitment. Commitment is saying that no matter what comes in the future, you’re going to stick it out. Commitment means that you have obligated yourself to follow through on your word. A commitment is your personal guarantee that you will do what you promised.
We live in an era where commitment is cheap. It’s cheap in marriage, business, politics, and even in athletics. Commitment is cheap in professional sports when a running back will sign a six-year, multi-million dollar contract, and then stay out of training camp in his trade year because the team won’t renegotiate his contract. Why does he want to renegotiate? He wants to renegotiate because his contract is no longer personally convenient, and he refuses to keep his commitment until he gets his way.
Just by watching the news these days you'll notice some disturbing trends in our society. Statistcal evidence pointing to a lack of commitment in most all areas of life.
People aren't committed to their marriages. According to Enrichment Journal, "the divorce rate in America for first time marriages is 41%, for second marriages is 60%, and for third marriages is 73%." Just the fact that the statistics are broken up like this is telling.
People aren't committed to their children. More and more parents (mainly fathers) are leaving their children behind after a divorce. According to Custodial Mothers and Fathers and their Child Support: 2007, released by the U.S. Census Bureau in November, 2009, there are approximately 13.7 million single parents in the U.S. today (84% of custodial parents are mothers), and those parents are responsible for raising 21.8 million children, about 26% of the children under 21 years of age. Judy H. Wright, parent,educator and author says one out of every four American children lives in a single-parent home..., divorce, incarceration, drug and alcohol abuse are just some of a myriad of reasons that parents are absent in the life of a child.
People aren't committed to their job. America's workplace productivity and quality is waning. In a City Journal article by Steven Malanga, entitled "Whatever Happened to the Work Ethic?" he says: "After flourishing for three centuries in America, the Protestant ethic has begun to disintegrate, with key elements slowly disappearing, from modern American sociey..." and, "As the editor of the American Work Ethic noted, affluence, hedonism and radicalism were turning Americans away from work and the pursuit of career advancement, resulting in a sharp slowdown in U.S. productivity. "
People aren't committed to their faith. Church attendance and involvement is on the decline. According to research done by the Barna Research Group, "Church attendance across denominational lines has suffered a five-year decline and has sunk to its lowest level in two decades. In telephone surveys of 1,004 U.S. adults 18 and over, 37% of Americans now report going to church on a given sunday. Attendance peaked in 1991 at 49%." "Increasingly, we are seeing Christian churches lose entire segments of the population: men, singles, empty nesters... and people who were raised in mainline Protestant churches," wrote pollster George Barna.
The spirit of this age, whether expressed in marriage, parenting, work ethic, or our faith, maintains that commitment should be honored only while convenient. When a commitment becomes inconvenient, bag it. Burton Hillis once said, “there’s a mighty big difference between good sound reasons, and reasons that sound good.” Our society believes that only one commitment sounds good: our right to be happy.
How about you? How do you live out the committments in your life?
We are called to be different, The Word of God instructs us in Colossians 3:23
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."
It's easy to just quit, to give up when things get tough. However, it's in those times of difficulty, pressure and struggles that our faith is put to the test and our greatest spiritual growth occures. We are not supposed to be looking for the easy way out, but rather the proper way, the righteous way to accomplish all that we put our hands to. In the life of a believer this is what honors God.
"Commit everything you do to the LORD, trust Him, and He will help you." (NLT) Psalm 37:5
"Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (NIV) Proverbs 16:3
God Bless and Press On
Larry
Larry
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