I read a story some time back, I don't have a clue whether it was fiction, or true, but it really typifies the current American attitude, and even to some degree, the current Christian attitude about promises that we make. There was a fairly rich young man who had been taken to the hospital, critically ill. His condition worsened, and he was confined there for quite a few weeks. His doctor even had told him that he wasn't sure if he'd recover, but that they would continue to do all they could. The man was obviously scared to death, and said to the doctor, "please, doctor, do everything you can, I don't want to die, I have so much to do yet in life, and if you can help me get better, I'll even donate $10,000 to the fund for the new hospital. The young man happily began to improve and recovered, and a few weeks later was released and went home.

Several months later, while he was out in the town, he saw the doctor on the street, and the doctor asked him how he felt. The young man said, Doc, I haven't felt better any time in my life. The doctor said that's great, because I wanted to ask you about the money you said you wanted to donate to the new hospital fund. You remember you said if you got well, you'd like to donate $10,000, and we could really use that now. The young man said, Man, If I said that, I must have been really sick.

For some people, making and KEEPING promises seems to be a really tough issue, for some reason or another. But fortunately for us, there is someone whose promises are always KEPT.