Mutual Promise

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many people you talked to, engaged in conversation. It’s how you talked to them. It doesn’t matter how many acts of kindness you did during that day. It’s about sincerity and compassion; about motivation. Life is not about scorekeeping; it’s about promise-keeping. You and I were taught as children to keep promises; hollow agreements are not promises; shallow commitment is not commitment.

I’ve put up a few shelves in my life, extra shelving in a closet or in the garage. And I have never used Scotch Tape to secure the shelf to the wall. Find the wooden support behind the drywall, locate the center point, measure twice/cut once, then sink the wood screw through the support, through the drywall and into the framing. If you simply attach the new shelf to the drywall, watch out. You need an anchor point to hold the shelf up, and that piece of framing, unseen but present, is the promise. Strike a bargain with that framing, a mutual agreement, and you’ve got a sturdy shelf.

Consider that your spiritual life is not about how many nice things you do, but how you do those things; the reason behind the doing; the motivation that prompts the moment. And I suggest that the motivation is directly related to promises made…the one you made with Christ as Source and Guide of life, and the one(s) Christ made with you about presence and meaning and purpose. Mutual agreement to be kept as practice and principle. When I was a kid, more than once I heard grownups say: “Ok, we’ve got a deal. Let’s shake on it.” That’s a promise, and a promise is foundational to faith.