Is it worth it?

Hello beauties
It’s day 10 in the new year, I hope you haven’t given up on your resolutions or goals yet.

Excuse the missy elliot gif, I just couldn’t help myself. I deleted it 5 or 6 times but I thought “hey, let me be myself“. Ironically it fits in with the theme of this post.

One thing that has been resonating with me this week is #Sacrifice. It’s something that I’ve not been the best at doing. I don’t know if anyone else can relate but certain goals such as exercising, catching up on all my notes or even reading my bible, I start of doing well but as soon as a barrier comes up I’m like

“nah not today“.
I used to submit to those barriers instead of pushing past them. My lack of sacrifice ultimately led to me remaining stagnant.

The bible says

“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?”
– Luke 14:28 (NLT)

There is a cost to everything and ultimately you get what you paid for.

You can split sacrifice into 3 parts.

Counting the cost
Paying the price
Getting what you paid for

Today we’re talking about paying the price. Let me put this into context. So my church and I are undergoing a Daniel fast for 21 days. It’s a fast based on the fast Daniel did in the bible

At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
– Daniel 10:2-3

So basically it’s like a vegan diet for 3 weeks – only fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and water. That image was me on day 1. I thought that this was a cruel and unusual punishment. I never knew how much I took meat for granted!

But…

After my dramatic day 1 I started to ask myself why am I doing this? Is it worth it? What didn’t help is that I didn’t really have time to count the cost until I started because I forgot we were doing it. Coincidentally I wasn’t in church that Sunday and the night before the fast began I ate a Chinese take out (I don’t advise anyone to do that before starting a fast!).
But yh.. As soon as I educated myself about this fast, why it’s being done and I asked myself why I’m personally doing it, it’s as though I got the fuel to continue the journey. Counting the cost also meant spending time with God and receiving grace for the sacrifice. Wherever strength may lead you to, grace will always go further. Personally, I’m doing this fast is for clarity of vision, it ties in perfectly with why my #EatPrayHustle Journey and it just adds fuel to the fire of me getting to know God more.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
– 1 Corinthians 9:24

Have you ever wondered why marathon carry on running? If it were me I’ll be out by the first 5 miles. I understand they go through training and they’re physically fit but there is also a huge mental component. Just as Paul said in the scripture above “run in such a way as to get the prize“. I imagine that as athletes are running long distances they must envision the gold medal and remind themselves of why they are doing it, why they want to be the best, why they should push past their tiredness.

This theme of ‘Sacrifice’ applies to everyone. We all have goals that we are striving to meet and with everything there is a price to pay. So whatever goal it may be, ask yourself if it’s worth it? and use that as a continual reminder of why you’re doing it.

I end with this