What are you willing to suffer for?

This is #6 in a series on ideas and breakthroughs I'm most grateful for.

On this eve of Good Friday, it's appropriate to pause and consider suffering, sacrifice.

Some years ago, when considering where to spend my time and energy in life, someone asked me a question. "What are you willing to suffer for?"

That question has bounced around in my psyche over these years, and I've wrangled with the question.

It's such a striking question.

Because it reveals so much.

The truth was, I probably wasn't willing to suffer for much of anything at the time.

Anything of great value, of great worth, will require suffering and sacrifice to attain. Do I believe in anything strong enough to be willing to suffer for it? And what is that? It's worth wrestling with.

The wild thing is that what we suffer and sacrifice for is the very thing we're prone to love.

Think on that for a second.

“Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, who shall have sacrificed part of himself to his farm or country, fought to save it, struggled to make it beautiful. Only then will the love of farm or country fill his heart.”?Antoine de Saint-Exupery

There's something about sacrificing ourselves for a thing, that makes us love the thing even more.

Korban is the ancient Hebrew word for “sacrifice.” The Hebrew tradition says that “what you sacrifice for, you love.”

If we sacrifice for our career, we love it.

If we sacrifice for our hobby, we love that.

If we sacrifice for family, or country, or neighbor, we love them.

If we sacrifice for useless trivialities, like watching football on a Sunday afternoon, then we may end up loving that.

Be careful what you sacrifice for, because inevitably you’ll end up loving it.

Most don’t examine their life and decide to love the things that matter most. Rather, it seems most go through life and life kind of happens to them.

What we sacrifice for, we love. What do you love?

I'm determined to love what is most precious, what is enduring, what is lasting. I fall short. But I've found things in life I'm willing to suffer for. It truly is rewarding. And it's a virtuous cycle because as we do, we continue to love those things more and more.

My company, CloudSherpa, helps purpose-driven organizations grow up and flourish. We are Growth Guides.