Lacking Commitment

Are you familiar with the phrase "hooking up?"  It is a term used in what we'll call the Laguna Beach generation.  Or the generation that grew up on the MTV without any real music videos.  I would consider myself a part of that generation.  It is still widely used today to describe anything from exchanging phone numbers to spending the night with someone.  In other words, it has no concrete meaning - it means whatever the user wants it to mean each time it is used.

I still hear people use it today as a college student.  I wouldn't be surprised if people much older than me use it as well.  I have heard it used so many times, that I have conditioned myself to assume the most extreme definition of the phrase.  As someone who has never used the phrase, or had a reason to use the phrase, I also have to remind myself to respond to it out of a place of love.  Not in a  way that is judgmental and condemning.

What I really feel when I hear someone use the term "hooking up," is sadness.  It is a dull pang of hurt for them, that they are settling for ambiguity instead of commitment.  Uncertainty instead of faithfulness.

Faithfulness is important in all types of relationships - not just romantic relationships.  But it seems it so often gets abused most notoriously in that type of relationship.  Faithfulness is a Godly way of affirming worth.  Our true value and identity are in Christ alone.  However, as individuals, we do acknowledge or reflect that value in our relationships.  Maintaining faithfulness is a way of acknowledging that we know each other's worth - not according to our standards - but by God's standards.

Because God is faithful, so too are we called to be faithful.  Have you ever had an experience where you feel that someone is asking something of you that they aren't willing to do themselves?  Isn't it frustrating?  But in our relationship with God, that is not the case.  That is why we can assuredly say that He is a just God.  God was faithful to us first, and continues to be faithful.  He asks us to be faithful in our relationship to Him, and the relationships we have with others that seek to glorify Him.

There is a praise song that sums it up quite nicely:

Faithfulness, faithfulness is what I long for

Faithfulness is what I need

Faithfulness, faithfulness is what You want from me

When you experience even just a glimpse, a mere moment of God's faithfulness, you will begin to long for it.  You will find it fills you like nothing you have experienced before.  You will find you need Him.  You will find that faithfulness is what He calls you to.

~SP