Letter from the Editor
Committing Amidst Shopping
We live in an age where to commit is to limit. This is an age
where marriage is seen as nothing more than a certificate
that puts constraints on a relationship. In our society, the
highest expression of love is conditioned not on commitment,
but consent. We are constantly, restlessly searching for new
things to do, new classes to shop, new people to meet. To
commit is to put yourself into a box, where you are defined
by the body you belong to. Against that, the desire to be free
from obligations and rules pulls us away from commitment.
I propose an alternative position: commitment is in
fact the best way we can show love to one another.
Let’s break down what secular society is telling us. Society
is telling us that love is defined by full, unconditional,
and unlimited acceptance. If you stop right there, I will
give a resounding amen to that. God does love us fully,
unconditionally, and limitlessly. What I feel has gone wrong,
however, is when we take that to the extreme and say
that love means letting the loved one do whatever he or
she wants. This is the exact mindset that pushes back
on the concept of marriage because to the skeptics, all
marriage does is restrict what one can and cannot do
within its confines. In response to that, pastor and author
Timothy Keller, in The Meaning of Marriage, writes,
… when someone says, “I don’t need a piece of paper to
show love,” you might say, “Yes, you do. If you love the
way the Bible describes the love of two people who want
to share their lives together, you should have no problem
making a legal, permanent, exclusive commitment.”
Keller goes on to argue that the very act of entering into holy
matrimony with a loved one is one of the highest expressions
of love that one can display. Yes, we will definitely fall short
of the wedding vows we make, but the genuine commitment
to strive for them is itself a beau Y