Ask Yourself, Is It Worth It?
My wife Janet and I drove down to the National Finals Rodeo. We had a great time. It’s the Super Bowl and World Series of the professional sport of rodeo. We enjoyed watching the skill and savvy of both man and animals. But did we count the cost ahead of time?
The trip cost us a lot. I don’t mean just financial. We’d been saving up for about a year. It also cost us ten days out of a busy schedule. A destruction of our normal routine. Some of our writing deadlines had to be postponed. I got behind on my outdoor chores.
We drove three days there and three days back. Our Suburban broke down and had to be repaired along the way. We arrived home to a mountain of correspondence. Besides all that, we picked up horrible colds.
“So,” you might ask. “Was it really worth it?” Oh, yeah. You see, most everything worthwhile costs something.
When We Count The Cost
You may consider making new friends with your neighbors. Then, you hang back. This may require investment of time or energy or even
emotional strain. Perhaps a lawn mower loan involved.
You want to learn to play the piano. However, lessons cost $80 per month and a piano investment of at least $1,800. And you may be embarrassed to confess to friends you’re taking piano lessons at your age.
You know it would be a great experience to go on the church Mexico mission trip during Spring break. However, that would mean giving up your vacation time. Then you’d have to get all those shots and vaccines. And seven days without showers.
You know you should apologize to a relative you’ve offended. But you’re afraid of rejection. Plus, what will others think? Such an admission might ruin your propped up image of yourself.
Jesus Reminded Us
In Luke 1:27 Jesus told us discipleship would cost us something. We should count the cost before we proceed in following Him.
Of course, some actions cost us a great deal. But those quite often bring the most joy and satisfaction. By pushing ourselves, some projects turn out to be real bargains to our social, spiritual and family life.
Stephen Bly
Circa 1988
*Stack of coins image by Kevin Schneider from Pixabay
*Dollar Bill image by NikolayFrolochkin from Pixabay
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Count The Cost” audio podcast by award-winning author Stephen Bly. Sponsored by BlyBooks.com Legacy Series.
Sign Up on BlyBooks.com on blog page to receive RSS feed by email for podcast blog notices. Related blog article with podcast embed will arrive every Tuesday and Thursday. Look to the right of the LINK PAGE for “Subscribe to the Blog via Email” and “Enter your email address”.
Would greatly appreciate if you a) SUBSCRIBE, b) RATE, c) REVIEW the podcast.
More timeless wise words from Stephen Bly! I must say I have never regretted the times I made an effort to do something I didn’t have to do. This podcast has reminded me to do that more often! And to do it in the name of Jesus.
Elly: Greatly appreciate your note! Blessings, Janet
The cost you had occurred is might be not planning accordingly, therefore, you have to pay more.
Thanks for your comment!