In college, I had a good friend who should have majored in hunting rather than anything academic. He simply lived to hunt. It never ceased to amaze me that he would stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning hanging out with everyone, and then get up at 5 the next day in order to hit the stand before class. Every spring, he would intently get ready for turkey season. For him, his passion would consist of getting up before the sun rose on only a few hours of sleep, get ready, go out into the cold of the morning, track what he was hunting, SOMETIMES make the kill, prepare what he had just hunted, and be ready for class at 9:30 that same day. He would skip breakfast, and his bed in order to sacrifice his time to the elements. His hunting would consist of him crawling around on the forest ground silently stalking a bird. To me that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but to him there was nowhere else that he would rather be. In light of all the things that he gave up, I would ask him, “Was it worth it?”
The question in his mind was ridiculous, because it was DEFINITELY worth it in his mind. His zeal was so great that it made me want to go with him. His enthusiasm for the sport far outweighed the sacrifices that he had to make. Such is the case for our Christianity. Often it comes down to a sacrifice for us in relation to the well-being of our spiritual lives. It would serve us well to catch a little bit of the enthusiasm that we have for our hobbies, jobs, and families, and transfer it over to our spiritual lives. No sacrifice should be too great for us, and we should enthusiastically take what the world gives us; because enthusiasm can catch on real quick!