Commitment

Scared already? That bad word ... commitment. What's better ... free love?

See, all of us want intimacy. It means being close to someone. It's giving to and receiving from another person the deepest parts of who we are. As humans, we desire to be known in loving safety, explored with genuine interest, discovered by hopeful wisdom, and touched by the source of spiritual power. An author I know wrote, "You might say that intimacy between a man and a woman is the icing on the cake of a relationship headed towards marriage." If that's intimacy, you can easily see that most of our dating relationships are no more than icing. They usually lack purpose. We date because we want to enjoy the emotional and physical benefits of intimacy without the responsibility of real commitment.

Simply put, pursuing intimacy without commitment awakens natural desires that neither person can justly meet. Therefore we are being frauds. Intimacy without commitment (icing without cake), can be sweet, but it ends up making us sick. The results aren't what we hoped for, and we're left feeling emptier than before. The intimacy is superficial. The sex leaves us dissatisfied and hungry for something real, something true.

The joy of intimacy is the reward of commitment.