Worth It

I have a niece going through a dif­fi­cult preg­nancy. Her friends reas­sure her that it is worth it. All of my life I have watched peo­ple make sac­ri­fices for aca­d­e­mic achieve­ments. Come grad­u­a­tion day, I often hear the phrase: “It was worth it.” I hear the same words in hos­pi­tal cor­ri­dors — espe­cially when chil­dren are involved. Per­sonal sac­ri­fice is com­mon when we see oth­ers suf­fer. We are more inclined to help oth­ers than ourselves.

Some expe­ri­ences are worth the costs and some are not. I have never regret­ted the expenses incurred for travel. Spon­ta­neous road trips, two-day mini-vacations, or a week in Eng­land — all reg­is­ter as worth the time and money. My regrets have to do with pur­chases made for mate­r­ial things that proved to be shoddy. Even the best things wear out — expe­ri­ences never do.

If you have trou­ble mak­ing deci­sions, remem­ber the term: “worth it.” Mea­sure the end result by the full cost. If peo­ple did this, addictions would drop dra­mat­i­cally. The cost of the sub­stance is not much, but the long-run costs in rela­tion­ships, health, jobs, careers, and self-esteem are beyond estimate. Life-damaging addic­tions are just not worth it.

I have heard it said that, “in God’s econ­omy noth­ing is ulti­mately lost.” The Creator’s phys­i­cal uni­verse lives up to that. Mat­ter becomes energy and energy even­tu­ally becomes mat­ter again. The forms change, but the essence remains. I think human exis­tence is like that. Money becomes expe­ri­ence. Suf­fer­ing teaches endurance. Sac­ri­fice and love par­al­lel the mat­ter and energy prin­ci­ple of physics. Some­thing is in the mak­ing that is absolutely mind-boggling. It is filled with ten­der­ness and wars. All pos­si­bil­i­ties are being worked out. What­ever it is, in the end, it will be worth it.