We have just finished a weekend honoring the men and women who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. All men and women who enter the armed forces of this country are willing to pay that price; far too many of them have actually paid that price on our behalf. Memorial Day is far more than just the beginning of summer, but is the day we set aside to honor those men and women who paid the price of freedom.
This Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I traveled to Gatlinburg with two of our closest friends, and along with several thousand others, experienced three days of some of the best Southern Gospel music to be found anywhere. Gaither Family Fest is held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee each Memorial Day weekend. Family Fest is five concerts, packed full of worship and praise, laughter and tears. It is a phenomenal experience, and one I would love to repeat again some time. But, for a person just two months past knee replacement surgery, there was a price to pay. The evening concerts are long, meaning I didn't get nearly as much rest as my body needs these days. Gatlinburg is on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, which means there are a lot of hills to walk up and down. The parking lot is across the street from the convention center where the concerts were held, which means more walking just to get into the building, after which there is walking through the large convention center building to get to our seats. Those seats were folding metal chairs with just a hint of a cushion on the seat, and they were hooked together very closely, so seating was not the most comfortable, and was hard on my arthritic parts. While I loved the entire experience, uncomfortable chairs and all, I paid a price for the weekend experience. By Saturday night, my knee was very swollen, and even more so on Sunday. In fact, it resembled an over-inflated basketball. By Monday morning I was once again walking with a cane. Once we returned home, I spent most of yesterday in my chair with ice on my knee and am happy to report my knee is doing much better today.
Those musicians who were a part of Family Fest pay a price as well. They spend hours developing their skills, and hours rehearsing their instruments, whether piano, guitar, or voice. One of the most amazing performances we heard the entire weekend was Kim Collingsworth playing How Great Thou Art on the piano. I have no words to describe what a phenomenal performance that was. If you can get a DVD of her playing (because you need to see her play as well as hear her), I highly recommend you do so! All those musicians pay a price to be in the music industry, not just in terms of the time they spend honing their craft, but in the time they spend on the road, traveling around the country and even abroad, just to present these concerts we all enjoy so much. There's a price to be paid.
Yesterday while I was icing my knee, in between naps I did some reading. Writers pay a price as well. Being a writer is often a very solitary pursuit. Writers spend hours writing and editing what they hope someone will want to read. Then they risk rejection over and over as they submit their work to publisher after publisher, in hopes someone will want to print and market their work. Many writers never achieve the success they seek, but they keep writing because that's what writers do. Writers write. And they are willing to pay the price to do that.
Missionaries pay a price as they follow the calling God places on their lives. They leave their homes and extended families behind, often going to far away, sometimes dangerous, places to share the Gospel. There's a price to be paid, and they willingly pay it.
For all of us who are Christian, there is a price to be paid. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be counter-cultural. To follow Jesus and not the ways of the world. There's a price to be paid. We may not be popular. We may be ridiculed. We may lose friends. We may be misunderstood. That's what Jesus was talking about when He said, "Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost?" (Luke 14:29 ESV).
Just before He said that, He said, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:28 ESV)
There's a price to be paid. If God has placed a calling on your life to be a writer or a musician or a missionary or a teacher or a preacher, there's a price to be paid, whether in the time it takes to prepare or in where you must go to follow that calling or in whatever ridicule you might endure.
For each of us who follow Jesus, there is a price to be paid. The question is, are we willing to pay it?
Something to think about.
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