Commitment V Feelings...

So...

Tonight - rather last night at church, Ed Young spoke... If you've never heard of Ed Young, click here to find out about him - well worth the look.

Anyways, he asked an interesting question... "Have you ever paddled away from authority?" And I am sitting there thinking... people have talked about this before plenty of times, but there was something about this time that was different. Maybe I was more open to the question being posed... more willing to ask myself the question that Ed dared to ask. I don't know... but a few things hit me. Let me explain a bit more...

Ed's main example was Samuel and Saul in 1 Samuel 13 and 15 selected verses. You see, Samuel was God's anointed one. Saul was a powerful King empowered to make all these important decisions to go to battle but Samuel was the one who ultimately was the "go to" person... Samuel had to offer up the burnt sacrifices before Saul could command his army to go to war so even if Saul's army was scattering around him and everything was falling apart, God had commanded him to stand by until His chosen one had offered up the sacrifices on behalf of everyone else...

Saul gets impatient in 1 Sam 13 and after 7 days of waiting for Samuel and nothing going his way, he decides to make the sacrifices himself....

As the flames are burning, Samuel rocks up and says, "What have you done?"

And Saul says,

"Because I saw that the army had started to abandon me and that you didn't come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Michmash I thought, 'Now te Philistines will come down on me at Gilgal and I have not sought the Lord's favour.' So I felt obligated."

Saul saw, he thought, and he felt. He turned his back on authority because of what he was experiencing. It didn't matter that God's command was for him to wait for Samuel - that wasn't convenient for Saul. He didn't feel in control, he felt like he was losing the battle and he felt uncomfortable so he found a quick fix to ease his nerves.

It's interesting to see that in the next chapter of 1 Samuel, Saul's mighty army is found in total confusion turning on each other in battle and killing each other. And actually, in chapter 13 also, Samuel informs Saul of the consequences of his actions.. that his kingdom would not endure and that God had chosen a man after His own heart to rule over his chosen people... Incidentally, Saul dies along with his offspring at he end of 1 Samuel and David becomes king.

Ok, so I've gone a touch off topic but hey, this is the place where I am just writing right?!

Anyway, Ed commented that if everything we did or didn't do was based on our feelings, what we feel is or isn't right, then we'd be stuffed... That's true. And then he went on to explain that his wife Lisa and himself don't have tingly "feelings" for each other every moment of every day and if their marriage was based on that, then the marriage would have ended a long time ago, but rather that the foundation of their marriage is the commitment they made to each other to stick together no matter what. So when feelings fade, commitment remains constant.

And commitment is linked directly with obedience...

At this point, I want to end talking about what Ed said directly and insert my own thoughts and comments to finish off..

I look at a lot of relationships these days... at a lot of the reasons why relationships begin even and very rarely is it that I see relationships based on commitment rather than feelings. I see so many struggling relationships because "chemistry had died"... Ok, so sometimes relationships start out of false feelings, and some relationships are just excuses to ignore what's really happening... but a lot of times relationships die because people aren't committed enough to work things out. When the going gets tough, people bail. A lot of times, because the foundation of the relationship is focused on feelings rather than commitment, the focus sets the intensity of the relationship, the temperament if you like.

I have no idea who's reading this and/or if you understand, but I hope you do. If my relationships - my friendships - were based on feelings alone, I'd probably be without friends right now. Do people get on my nerves? Yes. All the time. Life would be great and perfect if not for people! But when I get annoyed with people and frustrated and even offended, that's when my commitment kicks in.

I can't abandon my friends. Whatever they do, I find it hard to close the door on them completely and most of my friends will probably have noticed that at some point in time.

So my question to you is, "Are you committed?" or, "Do you live on feelings?"

Maybe you can answer yes to both questions... in which case I would challenge you to rethink because I would have been one of those people who would have said yes to both a few weeks back, but I've learnt that the questions aren't exclusive questions... what I mean is that you aren't necessarily one or the other... having said that, when it comes to the punch, which are you? See, I live on feelings, but if those feelings disappear, I am stil committed sp I would say I am committed rather than that I live on feelings because I don't really live on feelings.. I am more so aware of them but I live by commitment. Commitment to my values and my family and my friends.

If you're in a relationship at the moment based on feelings that you know wouldn't stand up to the challenge of commitment, I would say, what are you doing ?!

You might sit there saying, "You don't understand the relationship I have... it's not at the 'commitment stage' as yet..." But I think all relationships are at the commitment stage. Commitment may be defined slightly differently in each relationship, but there's got to be some kind of commitment for "relationship" ... I'm not talking about "aquaintances" I'm talking about friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends...

Have a ponder and get back to me on it if you'd like whether you know me or not. All opinions will be respected.

Luv... Girl wide Awake at 3.50am for no apparent reason.

"Most of us are educated beyond our obedience"

"We have always been diamonds. When we were born we were raw though, rough around the edges with glimpses of our true value... as God chips away at our edges, refining us and continually revealing more of our beauty, it is our choice to let him tap away. We can either resist or embrace his workmanship."