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Commit - The acts of love that make us who we are becoming
For some, the very thought of making a commitment is fearful, while others deliberately seek something worthwhile to which they can commit themselves or someone worthy of their best energies to whom they could make a commitment for life. Still others associate the word, “commit” with sin or crime, or with consigning someone to a locked facility for emotionally disturbed or violent people. All meanings of “commit” include a definite decision and action. There is nothing tentative about the act of committing or making a commitment.
We might wish to reflect on our present thoughts and feelings about one or more of our commitments, or about our hesitancy when some movement or movements within our minds and hearts invite us to commit. The subject is not something we turn to for entertainment because most of us do not take commitments lightly. However, a few moments of conscious attention to a significant part of our interior lives can be both freeing and affirming rather than occasioning self-criticism or a feeling best identified as false guilt.
Those who have trusted their inspirations enough to make a decision with significant long-range consequences know how, rather than suffering a loss of their freedom, they have become deeply satisfied by focusing their energies on an ongoing project or on a continually deepening relationship. One of the realities about avoiding commitments is the likely consequence of having feelings of true guilt for not developing one’s gifts of mind, body, and spirit.
Reflecting on a personal experience of daily following through with one of our commitments might very well reveal some of the supportive impulses and graced movements in our minds and hearts that enabled us to maintain our chosen course through some doubts and difficulties. We come to a deeper appreciation for who we have become precisely within the context of the commitments we have made and have kept.
There is no guaranteed process or set of practices for committing ourselves in a specific direction. We cannot force ourselves or anyone else to act in love, the true power behind lasting commitments. We all have limitations and weaknesses, and perhaps some unhealed internal wounds. These can interfere with our freedom to successfully follow through with committing ourselves to a project or to a person, and this is true of all the other people who might be involved in the commitments we make.
However, love has a way of drawing us beyond fear into clear recognition and acknowledgment of the inspirations God gives us. This love only encourages directions in life that are perfectly in accord with all that is truly good for us and for everyone else. Last Updated 8/8/2026