Second Thoughts: We’ll Never Regret It
Author: Thomas White | Editorial Staff, Living Church of God
Much of this world sees commitment as extremely dangerous. And for the most part, it’s not wrong about that.
Commitment is dangerous—just ask anyone who ever shelled out cash for tattoo removal. The Scriptures actually warn against throwing promises around—even ones with the purest intentions—because we humans are neither omnipotent nor omniscient, and might very well realize later that a commitment we made was unnecessary, foolish, or even sinful (Matthew 5:33-37; James 5:12).
A poorly-placed commitment can indeed create a nightmare of consequences, and because they recognize that, most people are understandably terrified of commitment in general. “If I commit,” they think, “I might regret it.”
Things We Can’t
Mr. Gerald Weston’s final Assembly for Living Education’s 2019-2020 year was focused upon the need to remain committed to God and His way of life. And because of the veil they’re under, most in the world find that entire concept absolutely horrifying. “Tying yourself down to a religion for life?! You’re going to regret that.”
To them, we’re binding ourselves to a restrictive way of living that keeps us from variety. Because of the commitment we’ve made, we can’t… insert one of a thousand things here. We can’t try all the foods they try. We can’t see all the movies they see. We can’t do all the things they do with all the people they do them with. We can’t, we can’t, we can’t.
Things We Can
And again—they’re not wrong. There’s a lot that a servant of God can’t. But what the world doesn’t see, what it’s simply not able to see, is the vast amount of things we can.
We can talk daily to Someone who is genuinely and wholeheartedly listening to us. We can read His heartfelt, wise responses to what we tell Him. We can take a day, every single week, to cast our usual burdens completely aside. We can feel the gratitude and satisfaction that come from improving ourselves with our Coach’s help. We can sincerely ask forgiveness and know that we’ll receive it.
We can have a wonderful relationship with our Father—no matter who our parents are. We can marry without the looming possibility of divorce hanging over us. We can live without puzzling over what morality is—we can know it, and know that we know it. We can feel the love of Someone who would literally rather die than live without us. We can have unshakeable confidence that death is not the end, but just a pause. We can look forward to one day being far, far beyond human.
And that’s not even a thousandth of what we can because of our commitment to the only One who deserves commitment. Commitment to the God of the Scriptures will never turn out to be a bad idea in hindsight. We’ll never find ourselves outgrowing Him, never discover fine print that He tried to hide from us, and never be burdened with the realization that it would have been better to commit to some other way of life. We’ll all make many stupid decisions as the days and years pass, but if we’re doing our best to sincerely follow Him, we will never, ever look back and say, “I really shouldn’t have tied myself down to God.” Those in the world don’t think we have the abundant life, but that’s only because they confuse “abundant” for “unhinged.” Yes, there’s a lot a servant of God can’t do—but none of it’s worth doing. If we’ve committed to Him, we’ve made the safest commitment possible, and we can rejoice in the knowledge that we’ll never regret it.
Thomas White was one of the onsite Living Education students for the 2018-2019 semesters. He also has a Bachelor’s Degree in English. Thomas currently works as an Editorial Assistant for the Living Church of God. According to his wife, he eats pizza in entirely the wrong way.
