Tuesday night at The Porch the young adults minister at our church spoke about commitment. It was a great message, JP provided statistics that reflect the lack of commitment in our generation and urged us to be more committed. There is a link to the video at the bottom of this blog if you would like to listen to it.
It is no secret that I believe our generation is non committal and it is no secret that I am completely, 100% bothered by it. Our generation is never on time, they are always looking for the better option, they don't communicate effectively when plans change, and they leave you hanging. It frustrates me to no end when people say they are going to do something and then flake out, when you send an invite to 100 people and only 20 respond and then 40 show up. Seriously? Or the best one, when an event starts at 7pm and they show up at 745, guess what... There is a start time for a reason! (Can you feel my passion about this) :)
So, after hearing JP's message on Tuesday it got me thinking about a discussion I recently had about the "Maybe" option on Facebook invites. I really can't stand the maybe option and it would be great if they took it away. But, since I know that chances of that actually happening are slim, I think we should expand the maybe section to include what it really means. Here are some examples,
1. Maybe - Definite no, but I"m a nice person and don’t want you to realize nobody cares about your event so I'll say maybe to make you feel better.
2. Maybe - Guaranteed no, but I’ll string you along just in case I need you as my backup to my backup plan.
3. Maybe - No, but I don't have an excuse yet as to why I don't want to come and I need more time to come up with one.
4. Maybe - (My personal favorite) I don't want to say yes because I'm not really that interested but I don't want to be a loser and stay home alone on a Friday night so I'll say maybe until something better comes along.
You are all smiling right now because you know this is the truth. MAYBE you have been burned by a MAYBE , or MAYBE you are the MAYBE who is burning people.
Maybe leaves people hanging on. Maybe gives people hope that you might actually come. Maybe leaves people distracted, looking for you because you said you would come. Maybe is no fun!
So, in an effort to be more committal and to live like JP encouraged us to live let's work on eliminating the maybe. If you want to go, commit, say yes, keep your word even if it hurts (Psalm 15:4). And if you're not really interested say no, but say something! Don't linger in the maybe column or in the group of people who have not responded. Let your yes be yes and your no be no (Matthew 5:37)
Shoutout to JP for the inspiration for this blog :) Click here to check out his message. JP's message: Why commit?
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