What guarantees our faithfulness to God and His love? The answer: nothing. Yet God still trusts us. He continues to believe that we are His image and likeness, and that we are capable of loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The evidence of His trust in us is the care, compassion, and help that He continually gives throughout human life. Here we truly marvel at how vast and mysterious God’s love is. In response to this love, Christians generally offer their commitment, which is viewed as the starting point of the journey to repay God’s faithfulness and love.
In the Bible, we see how figures of faith expressed their commitments as a response to God’s faithfulness. Joshua, the successor of Moses, said, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” The most famous of all, Peter said, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” If Joshua expressed a commitment to remain faithful in worship to Yahweh Elohim and not to other gods, Peter offered his loyalty to the point of death. Joshua’s story ended with his commitment realized, whereas Peter’s commitment ended with the rooster crowing three times — a painful reminder of his own betrayal.
Commitment, or a vow of loyalty to God, is something that must be lived out and proven. Demonstrating commitment often comes at a cost. Not everyone can ultimately prove their pledge. Unfortunately, many assume that when they express their commitment to God — in private prayer or during an altar call — they have already proven their faithfulness. We need to understand that commitment is a liminal space. When someone commits, they are stepping into a liminal space. What is a liminal space? It is a space “in-between”; a moment of transition that lies between two places, two times, or two states. Being in a liminal space often evokes discomfort and uncertainty because we are in the process of shifting from the old to the new.
A liminal space can be pictured like being on an airplane. A plane is a liminal space: you have already left your departure city, but you have not yet arrived at your destination. Sitting on a plane for an hour can make some people uncomfortable. Yet there is no other way — one must remain in that liminal space to reach the destination. Many arrive safely; some never do. The same is true of commitment. Commitment is a liminal space — a transition from a past marked by rebellion against God to wholehearted faithfulness to Him.
Our commitment is never specific and often makes us uncomfortable. We may return to the past and break the commitments we once made. Perhaps because we are uncomfortable with change, we abandon them. Or we unconsciously fall back into deeply rooted habits. Whatever the reason we abandoned our commitment last year, we must realize that we still have the opportunity to renew it — perhaps even with a more profound commitment than before.
However, we must also be careful. We can become arrogant and overly proud of the beautiful commitments we declare on New Year’s Eve. We forget that commitment itself is not the destination, but the liminal space. It is in this liminal space that we must continue to struggle humbly, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that we may fulfill every commitment we have made to God in response to His love.