As I walked across the second of three soccer fields, I squinted my eyes trying to pick out my little Ella.  I stopped to make sure I was heading toward the right field.  I raised my hand to my forehead to shield the sun and searched for a curly blond pony tail and a pair of little legs wearing pink shin-guards(yes pink…we absolutely had to buy the pink shin-guards at the soccer store in an effort to keep Ella’s world from crumbling all around her…you know black shin-guards will do that to a little girl…and yes…shin-guards are worn under uniform socks…black…uniform socks). Annnyyywwwaaaay, I could not find my little soccer superstar in the mass of 4 year olds huddled around the ball on the field.  I shifted my search to the sidelines looking for Amy.  Just like a sailor looking for land, I scanned the sideline until I saw my twins, Amy, Amy’s mother, and Ella.  I walked up to Ella, who was sitting in her Gran Gran’s lap, and asked her if she was hurt.  “Nope.”, she answered.  “She wouldn’t go out there and play.”, Amy said.  I said, “Ella, how are you supposed to help your team from here?  How are you going to even kick the ball?”  Ella’s answer became the inspiration for this week’s Blog post.  She answered in all seriousness, ” Oh I’ll help them.  I’ll kick the ball toward the goal when it rolls over here to me.”

Do you think most people wander through life?  I do.  Why?  I guess there could be lots of reasons.  I think one of them is…it’s easy.  It’s easy to wander through life.  It’s easy to do juuussst enough to get by in a job.  It’s easy to do the same in school. It’s easy to blame others for our own shortcomings.  It’s easy to blame circumstances for  lost opportunities.  It’s easy to play the lottery.  It’s easy to wander through the chaos of a crazy schedule with kids, pets, dance, sports, music, gymnastics, chess club…whatever…it’s easy.  We say it’s hard, but that’s a lie.  The truth is we’re used to it.  We’re used to not eating together as a family.  We’re used to splitting our family up on the weekends because one child has a baseball tournament in the east and the other child has soccer in the west.  We’re used to clocking in and clocking out of our job and collecting a check on Friday.  We’re used to putting our own dreams on the back-burner.  We’re used to keeping our God-given gifts in a box, our talents on a shelf, our purpose in the attic. It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and wait for the ball to come to us. When it does, we’ll kick and score!  So what’s the problem?

The problem is : It’s not going to happen.  The fact is, most people wouldn’t be ready to kick the ball if it did come to them.  There is no such thing as a prize without a price.  And there are heavy consequences for expecting a prize without paying a price.  If you asked 1000 successful people to make a list of the requirements to become successful, I guarantee the same word would be on 1000 lists….SACRIFICE.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “For everything you gain, you lose something.”  We have to look at what we want to get out of this life.  We have to discover and focus on the prize.  Most importantly, we must be willing to pay the price to get it.  That’s why I think we wander through life…It’s too hard to take a look at our options.  It’s too hard to go eye to eye with the choices we know would make our lives better.  We know we’ll have to make some sort of sacrifice with every choice and that’s a hard thing to do.  It means saying no.  It means facing our children’s tears.  It means doing things we absolutely don’t want to do.  It means being uncomfortable and uncertain.  It means eating our own words.  It means swallowing pride.  However, the alternative should cease to exist right now.  We can’t just sit on the sideline anymore. The ball is not coming.  Go get the ball.  You can’t help yourself, your family, friends, team…or the world when you’re on the sideline. The game is going to go on with or without you anyway.  Why not score a few important goals yourself ?  If you know what you want…if you have a dream…a vision…a clear idea of how and what your life is meant to be…be willing to PAY THE PRICE!!!   It will always beat the price of staying the same.  🙂