It occurred to me that if we are going to see our best efforts bear good fruit the investment will be costly – perhaps financially, definitely personally. You see the old adage – no pain, no gain turns out to be true on so many levels.
With any new venture there is a part of us that look wistfully off into the distance to that time when it’s all going swimmingly with dividends aplenty. You know, like when you start training for a marathon or start a healthier eating stint and you see the healthier, glowing you walking around confidently and the fully trained and strong you crossing the finish line hands joyously raised in the air. The journey to those goals gets a fleeting glance in our initial thought process though, in reality, we do know in our hearts that between the A and Z is not going to be a cake walk!
This in mind I started to think about the A side of the coin, excellence and vocation. Ideally most of us when it comes to a job or career would love the opportunity to pursue what we love. That’s our hope and dream for our children. That they would never have to do what feels like a day of work in their lives because they are doing what they love. That’s all well and good and it’s a righteous desire but of course it comes with side B of the coin. Anything undertaken from the heart will cost and that cost will be dear. There is a saying that goes like this: Don’t wish for/covet (yearn to possess something belonging to another) what another man has. You don’t know what he had to do to get it. In a nutshell it’s saying that the benefits and rewards look great but would you be prepared to go through the process, trials and sacrifices they went through – do you even know how they came by their good fortune?
I have been amazed to find that this is true of absolutely everything. Parenting, marriage, teaching, acting, business and being 1st class at your chosen passion. No sphere of life is exempt from the process.
We renewed our wedding vows a couple of years ago on our 25th anniversary and during the course of the evening and afterwards our friends and wider family told us what a beautiful family we had. Indeed we do and to see them all there as young adults was rewarding and gave a sense of fulfilment seeing the fruit of our journey but the process hasn’t always been pretty. It’s been as intense and messy as it’s been rewarding and glorious.
Working in education I know that for the best and most committed teachers what they do is not a job, it’s a vocation. I’ve seen them sweat, cry, challenge and pull out all the stops for the children and families they serve. Anything less would be doing a job… not a vocation.
Looking further afield we revere actors who immerse themselves in their craft, observing with ‘ooo’s and aah’s as we witness the often painful process involved in become those characters they portray and getting Oscars for their trouble. Often the personal cost is high. Daniel Day Lewis and Joaquin Phoenix are perfect examples of acting excellence and complete immersion into the characters they portray. Daniel Day Lewis only took on a few roles in several years because of the intensity and commitment each process required, remarkably winning and being nominated for multiple Oscars. Joaquin Phoenix as ’the Joker’ spoke about his reluctance to reprise the role due the intensity and personal cost of the process.
Business owners go through a lifetime of juggling and risk. Never more evident than during Covid as many either adapted or died in order to just stay afloat. The adapting has born reward for many and they have been able to thrive by introducing a different way of working or new products and services. But the alternative was not an option for them.
Lastly, marriage. An institution designed by God to bring companionship, love, fulfilment and family but these things come at a cost of selflessness and sacrifice if you are going to make it work for the long haul. If you’re going to move beyond you messing up, your spouse messing up or your kids messing up. Many families become fractured because of any one of these scenarios.
So, we see that doing life with passion and commitment is high risk. The losses and pain are often as intense as the rewards are high. My conclusion is that we need to enter into that which we are passionate about with our eyes as wide open as our hearts and realise that painful, messy, precarious rubber meets the road lives are real lives.
As I Was Thinking 