Sacrifice, Destiny, and the Lies We Tell Ourselves.

We have grown uncomfortable with the idea of sacrifice.

Not the pretentious self-limitations of overindulgence we like to think of as sacrifice.

Something completely different.

Sacrifice that hurts.

It’s the painful endurance of hard decisions.  The torturous focus that fights through fatigue.  The exacting self-awareness that rises about failure and personal deficiencies.

It’s tough.  And honest.

And painful.

And we want sacrifice that is easy.

We want sacrifice that projects grandiose plans and bold ventures and requires limited personal effectation.

And that’s not really sacrifice at all.

It’s a lie.

And not a lie we tell to others.

It’s worse.

It’s the dishonesty we tell ourselves.

Of hyperbole and false hope.

Of pretended endurance and mock anticpation.

And the damage we cause is deep.

We cheat ourselves out of opportunity and destiny by thinking that what is easy can ever replace that which is so very painful.

We forget that what is easy can never be sacrificed.

There’s nothing to endure, to give up, or to conquer.

Sacrifice must be hard.

It must be felt.

Somehow we try to justify that pretention is really lasting investment.

And it is not.

It is simply selfish attitudes and loser actions.

And worse, we lose.

You lose.

You’ve probably been there.

Pacing through the darkness of night, you question your destiny, your dreams, and how much more you can take.  The darkness brings worry and thought and hard choices.  And as you step anxiously through the hours of the night, impossibility looks like reality.  No end in sight.  Only darkness.

But if you keep walking and plod and ponder, the horizon begins to brighten.  Across the edges of a darkened night, shades of color dash upon the sky.  And in this moment you know that the fears of the night have been unshackled.  The night is over.

The day of your destiny has dawned.

If you’re in the night, the sacrifice can seem to much.  The cause to little.

But the pain you feel now is a small price to pay for the destiny you demand.

Don’t believe the lies you want to tell yourself.