I stumbled across something today that I just had to share.  Doing some reading on-line I came across a point made by Rick Warren that I thought was actually, dead on.  Some of you know that I am not the biggest RW fan - for reasons we can talk about in another post.

Yet, in coaching a fellow pastor Warren reminded him of how God has designed us to grow.  Warren said, “We grow by making commitments.  We don’t grow to commitment, we grow through commitment.”

This is dead on.  For example, if everyone waited until they were completely “ready” to have children, the world would be one lonely place.  You’ll never know enough, save enough, or be emotionally ready enough for all that parenting requires.  Rather, through parenting itself one is made ready.

The same is true with marriage.  When it came time for Lisa and I to get hitched we were simply “ready enough.”  The rest has come through the ups and downs of living the commitment.

When we make a commitment it forces us to address issues we have otherwise left on the back burner, to learn new skils, and to discover things about ourselves that we have never known.

The funny thing is that while God is the one who made us this way, God’s people are notoriously bad at living it out.  In contrast to, say the business world, where people are encouraged to make commitments and take risks for the sake of growth, movement and the betterment of the company all of the time, the church seems to struggle with challenging its people to make big commitments and to take on drastic life change.

Most churches tend to train, coach, and talk a lot about growth and change yet never step up and ask their people to commit to any of it.  The end result is a lot of people who know about God’s power to grow them but have never experienced it.

If you really think about it, that kind of approach to life is wholly unbiblical.  Look at Noah, Moses, David, Abraham, Paul, etc.  Each one was given the challenge and told to step before an ounce of training was handed to them.  Instead they had to trust that God would provide all the power and ability need.  How intereting.

So, this begs the question: where I am being asked to take a step, to grow and change?  And what excuses have I been using to sidestep that commitment?  Chances are, whatever the excuse, we need to stop copping out and start saying yes.