Read: Luke 8:43-48

Deep down, I’ve always known that I have a fear of commitment, but I never realized just how all-encompassing it is until recently. I spend so long trying to decide if I’m making the right decision that I never actually set foot in the water so that it can divide. I prefer to weigh all the available options from a safe place where I have plausible deniability:

 No, I’m not really disappointed that I didn’t get that job because I’m not sure I wanted it.

 Of course I don’t mind that things with that guy didn’t work out. We weren’t actually in a relationship. We were definitely just friends.

Sometimes we’ve been so hurt by our past experiences, misses and failures that it’s hard to imagine that things will work out if we try again. The mere possibility of facing another failure or rejection is enough to keep us on the bench.

In Luke 8, a woman who had been sick for twelve years saw an opportunity for healing and decided to take a shot. She had spent all her time and money visiting doctors and hoping for a cure. She had come up empty time and again. In spite of the shame of her past, she resolved to reach out one more time, to Jesus, with the faith that he could heal her.

Are you holding back in any area of your life because you’re afraid to take a risk? For me, those areas include writing, my career, relationships and surrendering to God. There’s a point at which we just have to commit. We can hem and haw about it, but we may end up missing our opportunity or worse, settling for less than God’s best.

Are there any areas in your life where you need to commit and just take the shot? As the saying goes, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Further reading: John 21:1-6