Controlling the Unpredictable — The Power of Promising

Here is a classic article by Lewis Smede about making and honoring promises, originally published in Christianity Today in 1983.

A human promise is an awesome reality. When a woman makes a promise, she thrusts her hand into the unpredictable circumstances of her tomorrow and creates an enclave of predictable reality. When a man makes a promise, he creates an island of certainty in a heaving ocean of uncertainty. Can any human act, other than the act of forgiving, be more divine?