3 Highlighters, hundreds of pages, and a sermon

It has been more than a week since my last post. I have taken a flying leap into the Fall semester and am trying to get my "groove". I am taking the heaviest course load yet and working to maintain some balance but have yet to get there. I have read hundreds of pages and burned through 3 highlighters already and the semester is just one week old. I had the privilige of preaching again this past Sunday so the sermon prep took some time as well.
It is hard to believe this time next year I will be in the midst of my last semester but time keeps ticking by and the credits keep adding up! I covet your prayers now more than ever as I continue to seek God's guidance and strength in this journey. I don't have any deep theological thoughts this time, I am all thought out for the moment!
Peace!

Devotion and commitment

So I am working on a sermon about devotion and commitment. The Bible has a lot to say about these things and there are certainly particular examples we are given of these qualities throughout scripture, yet today these things are hard to find. So much of our culture romanticizes these things yet at the end of the day the "commitment" comes to an end when the going gets tough. Well what kind of commitment is that? One of the definitions of commitment is to agree to do something in the furture. I almost laughed out loud when I read that. That is not how people in our world today, for the most part, understand that word. For the world commitment is about how I feel right now, not about anything to do with the future. Commitment has rolled up in it one of the vows we take in marraige, "for better or worse". When the going gets tough, you stick with it. Thing is more and more our society is becoming absolutely commitment phobic. Not only do people hesitate to get married but people rarely RSVP for parties, because something better might come along. People don't even want to sign up to take a class that it more than two or three weeks. Are we that lacking in perseverance that we can no longer make the simplest commitment and see it through, much less the weightier ones.

I am curious about any strong examples of commitment and devotion that anyone reading this might want to share. Are there any from your own life? Are there any that you can think of in television or movies or the media? Let me hear about them!