In our journey through life I am suggesting that it also can consist of three stages. The first stage is the roughest. It leads us through the rocky valleys of questioning. I call it the Quest stage. We question the existence of God and search for answers to our questions about the meaning and purpose of life. The second stage is when we decide to get on board with some of the answers. I call it the Commitment stage. To get there we have to make some commitment to our faith and values.

Commitment is difficult today. The culture does not encourage commitment. Because people move all over the world, there is little incentive to put down roots and to make commitments to places. Because of the multitude of choices available to us we want to keep our options open. Many do not want to make commitments to people. Living together without commitment is preferable to tying yourself down to one person for the rest of your life. Babies have to be wanted if they are going to be born and cared for adequately. Fewer people want to be inconvenienced by having to raise children, or assuming the costs involved. Because of layoffs due to the economy people do not want to be committed to one company only. They want to be able to explore other opportunities. Spiritual choices are varied. Why choose to be a Christian, or join a church, when there are so many possibilities for spiritual growth? There is a smorgasbord of religions out there to have to choose between.

But choose we must. We have only one life to live. We have to choose which career, which vocation to pursue. We cannot stay in the university taking course after course, changing our major every year. We must graduate and specialize. We have to choose whom we should marry. There may be many possibilities but we can only marry one. We have to choose which job offer to accept, which house to buy, which internet service, which telephone company, which bank, to use. Life is made up of making one choice over others. Joshua challenged the people of Israel: "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve....But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

If you have decided to be a Christian there are different levels of commitment. There is the level of commitment to ideas. We embrace the teachings of Jesus, and Christian beliefs about Jesus. But we must go beyond intellectual belief. You may be committed to a form of Christian Idealism, which believes in the priority of the eternal Mind, and the abstract beliefs of the Christian creeds, without being committed to personal transformation or personal involvement. It can be an ivory tower commitment that requires nothing of us, and does nothing for us except provide intellectual stimulation.

Then there is commitment to ethics. Many people are committed to Christian morality. In fact their religion is primarily one of values. Such commitment may lead to personal growth, but it runs the risk of becoming moralistic, legalistic, and self-righteous. It can also lead to despair as the attempt to become a better person runs into persistent failings, character flaws, and an inability to change solely in one's own strength. Many people who are committed to Christian ethics can either feel bad about their own failings, or become blind to them as they lecture others about their perceived failings. Their religion becomes one of condemnation, and threatening eternal punishment on those whose behavior they condemn. They major on guilt rather than on grace.

Then there is commitment to community. This is the realization that we are relational beings. All Christian ideas and ethics have to do with relationships. Relationships are central to our understanding of God as love, and as our obligation to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are who we are as individuals because of our relationships with others in our families, our work, our social clubs, and our churches. We join a church in order to belong. We become identified with that church.

But if we are not careful we become committed to a form of churchianity rather than Christianity. The community becomes more important than our relationship with Christ. Promotion of the church becomes more important than sharing the gospel of Jesus. Because we are committed to the success of the church we may want to have control over how it is run, how its budget is spent, how its staff and leaders perform. We become convinced that because of the depth of our commitment we know what is best for the church. We confuse what we want with what God wants. Our egos get involved. Our feelings get hurt if people don't follow our advice or recognize our contribution.

What we really need is commitment to others. We become committed to serving others. We can do much good through our unselfish service and caring. Nevertheless it is easy for us to get burned out in service, and for us to end up withdrawing from involvement in order to recover our strength.

We do not become Christian by merely committing to Christian ideas, to Christian ethics, to joining a Christian church. One becomes a Christian by commitment to Jesus Christ. It is in and through Jesus that we find the spiritual power we need in order to love ourselves and others.

The rich young man who came to Jesus (Mark 10:17-31) asking questions about eternal life, claimed to be committed to biblical ideas, and biblical commandments. He was a leader in his local synagogue. Yet Jesus recognized that he needed to look away from himself and his accomplishments and everything that provided him with his identity. He had to make a choice to follow Jesus. He had to get on the bus, or the train, that was leaving the station. He couldn't be a spectator. He couldn't just be an investor. He had to make a commitment of himself and board the train, if he wanted to get to his desired destination. He had to leave behind his former life, and come follow Jesus. He had to let go of what his hand grasped as important, and grasp the hand of Jesus. He had to leave his possessions which possessed him, which defined him, and open himself to a new life in the kingdom of God.

C.S. Lewis described what it was like to decide to follow Jesus after toying with atheism and Idealism. "Remember, I had always wanted, above all things, not to be 'interfered with.' I had wanted (mad wish) 'to call my soul my own.' I had been far more anxious to avoid suffering than to achieve delight. I had always aimed at limited liabilities. The supernatural itself had been to me, first an illicit dram, and then, as by a drunkard's reaction, nauseous. Even my recent attempt to live my philosophy had secretly (I now knew) been hedged around by all sorts of reservations. I had pretty well known that my ideal of virtue would never be allowed to lead me into anything intolerably painful; I would be 'reasonable'. But now what had been an ideal became a command; and what might not be expected of one? Doubtless, by definition, God was Reason itself. But would He also be 'reasonable' in that other, more comfortable sense? Not the slightest assurance on that score was offered me. Total surrender, the absolute leap into the dark, were demanded. The reality with which no treaty can be made was upon me. The demand was not even 'All or nothing.' ...Now, the demand was simply 'All.'

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen [College, Oxford], night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape...The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation." (Surprised by Joy, pp.182f)

Choose Jesus. He invites us all: "Come, follow me."

(Some material adapted from Pilgrimage, Richard Peace)