The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.
What does it take to be involved? For the chicken, she just laid an egg and moved on; no emotion, little costs and clearly no commitment. Now don't get me wrong. Laying an egg is no small thing. I couldn't do it. So, we'll give the chicken some credit.
Iused to work in a chicken house back in the day. ('The day' was any time in the 70's). Like everyone else, I thought a chicken laid an egg once in a while and then sat on it till it hatched. Then I went to work at a poultry farm and found out these things can pop eggs out like crazy. The chicken house I worked in was about a hundred yard long cage with nests on both sides. When a chicken laid an egg it rolled out of the nest into isle where it was picked up. I had a cart and walked down the isle picking up the eggs placing them in flats (30 eggs). You could pick up all the eggs, take 2 steps and look back and there would be 5 more eggs. It was crazy. I picked up 10 to 15 thousand eggs in one day - every day.
Are you like the chicken? Is your involvement in the church just an instinctive and thoughtless process? No one can argue that you are productive for a season. But there are limits to how many eggs you can lay. Does it seem like the more eggs you lay the more eggs people want you to lay? You can never give enough. You work and work and look behind you and all your work is gone. You're tired and ready to let someone else do it for a while or maybe you need to form an egg laying committee (Methodist chickens).
Maybe it's time to be committed. The pig was committed to the ham & egg breakfast. He gave his all. There was no holding back. He was all in. Once.
It was recently pointed out to me by a wise man (Eric Chapman) that it takes more commitment to give your all every day. Uh, yeah, I knew that…….but you just scrambled the ham and egg analogy……. Thanks, Eric!!! That analogy has been around for years. That just fries my bacon.
Eric is eggs-actly right, though. In the Christian life you have to get up every day and give your all. And in some cases that is giving your life through death. But in most, it's giving your life through life, every day, all day. It is dying to yourself, putting away your selfish, sinful desires and working out the fruit of you salvation. That is the epitome of Christian commitment. It's conviction.
"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
It seems that Christian commitment is about letting go and denying yourself, giving your all. You have to give your life, not like the pig doing it all at once. But instead, you give up your life one day at a time. That is done by taking up your cross and following Him. And when you do it His way, you will find a new life. The work you do will not be limited to your power and strength. You will be empowered by the Holy Spirit. You will find yourself accomplishing things you never thought possible.
When you get up tomorrow morning and think about breakfast, think about commitment. Don't just be involved in a Christian life, pick up your cross and go through your day giving your all to Him with a renewed commitment........... Oh, and enjoy your ham & egg breakfast.
Just thinking
Doug
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