“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’, ‘No’.” – Matthew 5:37
The word “dedication” has been on my mind recently, which reminded me of my late brother-in-law Chuck who worked for IBM for I don’t know how many years – forty maybe? – before he retired. To give you an idea, he went to work there after serving in the Navy back when IBM’s hottest selling consumer product was electric typewriters. Anyone old enough to remember those contraptions? Obviously, to have been there that long Chuck grew beyond the electric typewriters’ obsolescence, learning new products and gaining bigger promotions. The one thing about Chuck that didn’t change, though, was his dedication to IBM. In fact, the way he spoke so fondly of his employer, even after his retirement, caused me to suspect the blood in his veins must be IBM blue.
That is not to say Chuck’s dedication came from some sort of blind loyalty. I doubt he would have been nearly as dedicated had IBM not been equally as dedicated to taking care of its own – works both ways. Yet, I also know that dedication to keeping one’s commitments was one of Chuck’s core values. It came through in other ways he lived his life, his dedication to his family, his marriage to my sister-in-law, his community, and work he took on after retirement whether paid or volunteer.
Dedication has to do with keeping our commitments, doing what we say we’re going to do when we say we’re going to do it. It is about our word being our bond. We live in an age of written contracts, often containing pages of fine print covering minute details. Yet, how many contracts still wind up in dispute, leading to lawsuits, broken relationships, broken dreams, and sometimes broken hearts? Such would not be the case if more were dedicated to keeping their commitments.
Jesus breaks it down this way, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’, ‘No’.” Imagine if that were a deeper core value in our society, how lawsuit liabilities would be reduced, divorce rates decline, the economic impact it would have on such things as insurance rates, and the price of goods and services, and ultimately more trusting relationships with our fellow human beings. What if we could all be more dedicated, keeping our commitments in our jobs, with our spouses and families and communities? It’s up to us to get the ball rolling. “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’, ‘No’.”