College football recruiting is a crazy world! A wild turn of events occurred this week when a highly touted quarterback recruit decided to break a verbal commitment to Texas A&M and reopen his recruitment.
 
A Texas A&M assistant coach responded with a post on social media about loyalty and then continued with other critical tweets. After seeing the tweets, another Aggies recruit posted on Twitter that he was also reversing his commitment to Texas A&M. In one night, two solid recruits walked away from their commitments.

This all sounds absurd with social media involvement, but the situation did get me thinking about commitment. In sports, we see coaches being fired and leaving for other jobs, free agency, trades, and an overall system that dismisses full commitment from parties involved.

Unfortunately, in our own lives, we struggle with full commitment as well. How many times have we canceled something because a better option came along…or bailed on a good cause when it was time to come through with our time and money…or said we’d be at our child’s baseball game, but didn’t show up? How many people who commit to a lifelong marriage, or to remain faithful in a relationship, don’t live up to their promise?

This long list also affects our faith. When we say we commit our lives to Jesus, we are committing to following His way and living differently. Although that should be a big deal, we find ourselves wavering when selfish desires pop up and we don’t “feel” like following Jesus.

The challenge is to remain fully committed followers of Jesus. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV): “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of truth.” 

 Also, Deuteronomy 23:23 (MSG) tells us, “If you say you’re going to do something, do it. Keep the vow you willingly vowed to God, Your God. You promised it, so do it.”

Even when we blow it, God is still committed to us because of His grace. But in view of His great love and faithfulness, let’s be challenged to take our own commitments seriously. Let’s be determined to remain loyal and fully committed in all areas of our lives. I’m Bryce Johnson and you can UNPACK that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, forgive me for the areas of my life where I’ve lacked commitment. Please help me to do what I say I’m going to do. Please give me the strength to be a fully committed follower of Jesus and to be loyal to the people in my life. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.