Sacrifice. To get to the finish line, some things may need to be sacrificed along the way. They may be temporary or permanent, but it is up to you to decide what is best for you short and long term!
Sacrifice means giving up something you want now to have what you want later!
This can look very different for different journeys during different seasons in your life. Some different things that I sacrificed along the way:
In this season of striving towards health, I sacrificed sugar, soda and processed foods.
In the season of starting our business, we sacrificed live TV and limited “screen time”.
In a season of growing closer to God, I sacrificed sleep for adding in daily quiet time first thing in the morning.
Your sacrifice will be yours regardless of what someone else does and you can not compare nor judge your choices versus someone elses. You may get ideas from others, though you need to determine what is required of you. You KNOW what you want to accomplish and you KNOW what it will take for you to get it.
I remember asking God, “How do I know?” It is the quiet voice inside that we rebel against … and it can often be something we have a death grip on. When God gives us a goal, dream or vision that seems to overtake our every thought, we begin the mental game of “How do I make this happen?” This ever present thought has happened a few times in my life – completing a triathlon, starting our business, and relying on God after Thad’s accident.
Three completely different unrelated items all took the same transformation journey:
- I became aware of the idea acknowledging it was something I had to do
- I expanded the vision to understand where I was going and why
- I made uncomfortable changes and stepped into the unknown in FAITH
- I shared my journey with others for accountability
- I did the necessary work
Steps 4 and 5 have both happened though, in my experience, their order isn’t important. There are times when doing the work came before sharing and others where I couldn’t seem to start the work without sharing. You will know what happens for you.
There will be obstacles; there will be moments of wanting to give up; there will be resistance by you and others; there will most likely be pain involved and yet you will not be able to let it go. Remember to take consistent deliberate steps towards your calling … keep your steps sustainable … This is your commitment for this season and you will KNOW when it is time to re-evaluate and adjust. Trust yourself, sacrifice, and go for it!
God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.
The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it. ~ Oswald Chambers
