After I posted the Pay the Price blog, a couple of people wrote me either about being blessed or asking about what kind of price i’m talking about There was even one who asked for more clarity about the price I personally paid. So I’m posting a follow-up to that blog. 🙂

To pick between a negative and a positive choice would be simple, say for example do you want pain or no pain, do you want to pay high or small – thats a no brainer. However, when it comes to 2 good things or the need to sacrifice one good and another would make this a totally different story. On my end, I was having a great time, I was in the peak of my career, I didn’t have money problems, I slept around with different women and didn’t really feel lack of love. I felt like I could do anything! My definition of freedom then was to be able to do anything and not feel guilty about it and to not feel responsible for things that I really should be responsible for (like my kids). Back then, you can tell me how wrong I was and I’d just have 3 words for you — I don’t care.

Turning my back on all these wasn’t easy… I didn’t want to follow a “religion” that would just turn out to be a “fad” or “season” and then its back to being the old me. I didn’t want to waste those opportunities. I guess you can say that these are the prices i paid – my “freedom” and “status”. I had withdrawal syndrome… I struggled so bad. Sin kept calling me back. I missed the old life so bad… it was like a king hanging on to his crown not ready to pass on his throne to someone else. I also paid via “time” spent attending bible studies, seminars, groups etc. I even went for 2 terms to a theology college. I paid “Money” in tithes, purchase of DVDs and books, attending seminars abroad just to get a clearer understanding back on track. Lastly, the sacrificed “energy” of reading books after books searching for truth even when thats not how God wired me to be. It was all part of the price I needed to pay to be where I wanted to be.

If you are one of those that got moved by the blog, I hope you’re now starting to pay the price. Here are other situations:

  • It could be saying goodbye to a married boyfriend because now you know that until “Mr for the mean time” is here “Mr right” can’t come.
  • It can be the sacrifice of eating less and putting in that hour or two for exercise 3-4x a week because you want to look better and live a healthier life.
  • It can be commitment to attend a class because you’ve been wanting to learn a skill for the past 10 years but couldn’t get to do it.
  • It can be the days of feeling the withdrawals to finally quit smoking because you know you’re just wasting money and it’s not detrimental to your health.
  • Or a students daily sacrifice of not eating every recess so the can save up enough money to buy something like a favorite CD or to watch a concert.
Whatever that is… there are no short cuts. If you want something really bad then pay the price.
Warning though, sticking to paying the price would be easy if can see progress daily and you’re getting somewhere like learning a new language where you learn a couple of words per day. But many times its not like that. You don’t lose a few pounds immediately after a workout. The work would at first seem useless and ineffective and you wonder if its actually working or worse, if this is really where God wants you to be and what God wants you to do. Just like a mother chicken waiting for the egg to hatch. You don’t get to see if there is something really happening on the inside till the day the egg hatches.
I remember one of my students in diving Louie who eventually found himself falling in love with another student Lorraine. However, he wasn’t her type. He decided to stick around though and paid the price of waiting for no less than 8 months of pursuing (something you hear less of these days). Finally last May they become officially a couple. Louie paid the price and it paid off well.

Question is, is it everything worth the price? Only you can answer that but my advice. If you’re sure that is what God is telling you to do then by all means go all out. If you don’t have Gods go signal yet then you wait or exercise caution.