You Won’t Believe What I Paid

Share with someone that you made a big purchase. The first question is almost always the same: “Did you get a good deal?” We love a bargain. Some people have a gift for finding them. I am not one of those people.

But I did learn something important about paying a price. And it started with $21.23.

The $21.23 Lesson

I was fourteen years old, standing at a register with a toy I desperately wanted. The price tag said $19.95. I had a twenty-dollar bill. As far as I was concerned, I was set.

What I didn’t account for was sales tax. The cashier told me my total was $21.23, and all I had was $20.10. I froze. After an uncomfortable silence, she looked at me and asked, “You don’t have it, do you?” I couldn’t even speak. I just nodded.

What happened next I didn’t see coming. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out loose change. Then she called the other cashiers over and asked if they had any too. Together, they made up the difference.

I took the toy home. But it never felt right. Every time I played with it, the same thought surfaced: you didn’t pay for this. Someone else covered what you couldn’t. It felt borrowed — not earned. Not mine.

Seeing a price tag doesn’t mean you’re ready to pay the price.

That lesson has stayed with me ever since.

Sacrifice Isn’t a Bad Word

Try saying “sacrifice” out loud around people. Watch what happens. Faces fall. The room gets heavy. It’s as if the word itself carries grief.

But sacrifice is not a bad word. It’s actually a profound one.

It comes from the Latin roots sacra (sacred) and fice (to perform). To sacrifice is to perform a sacred act. Not a loss — an offering. Not defeat — devotion.

The word “passion” tells a similar story. Coined by Christian scholars in the twelfth century, it doesn’t primarily mean romantic feeling. In its original sense, it means to willingly suffer — specifically, the willing suffering of Jesus Christ. The distinction matters: it’s not the suffering of a helpless victim, but the chosen suffering of someone with a cause. Someone becomes the victor through what they endure.

That’s why “passion” and “path” share the same root. Pathologists study what people suffer from. And people of passion walk through suffering toward something.

The real meaning of passion is to suffer for what you love.

Passion isn’t a feeling. It’s a decision. When you find what you’re willing to suffer for, you’ve found your purpose. It’s what you’ll sacrifice to protect, to build, to become. That willingness to endure is not misery. It’s the gift. It stretches you beyond comfort and into calling.

What Price Are You Paying?

On a gravestone, there are two dates: the day you were born, and the day you die. Between them is a dash. That dash is your life — everything you chose, endured, built, and became.

We don’t discover the depth of our passions at the starting line. We find them as we walk the path. Life’s beginning teaches us what it costs to want something. The rest of life is where we decide whether we’re willing to pay.

Here’s what I know: you are already paying a price. Every single day. Every YES costs something. Every, No does too. The question isn’t whether you’re paying — you are. The question is whether it’s worth it.

Is the price you’re paying today leading somewhere that matters? Is your suffering sacred — or just expensive?

Don’t spend your life paying for something you’ll never truly own. Pay the price for what you’re called to carry.

The dash between your dates is being written right now. Make sure the price you’re paying is worth it.