Basketball and Sacrifice

I love basketball, sometimes to the point where I hang my ego on it, but I am not even that good (I wonder what that says about my ego?). In any case, watching the NBA, playing pick-up ball and even just talking about basketball is always fun. 

Couple days ago, I was invited to play ball back home, but I had still been in school. For some odd reason, I was disappointed a bit more that day. It could have been from seeing my home friends a week ago, and having talked about life they were living, how much different it was from mine. 

I had wanted to be home, in the comfort of my house, seeing my parents, attending church there, doing whatever my friends were doing, the happy and even the sad. I even thought to the point where I wanted to work at some company, making money and living like how a lot of my friends were living, settled down. 

I know all of that was just foolishness, the little kid playing the comparing game, but a deeper thought held on: what was I sacrificing to become a doctor? 

I left behind my loving family, close friends, a church that I love. I gave up spending time for myself, watching movies, TV shows, working out, relaxing, meeting up with good friends, talking, and even simply walking around the neighborhood. Why was I doing this? To get a job? If I was to become a doctor solely for my benefit, the financial well-being and the stability in the job, I could not find anything more meaningless. I had started school with goals of living a life for God, and I wanted to know how I was doing. 

As I graduate and take a step closer to the hospital, am I going to flock back home and live the way everyone else was living? I wanted to fly! I wanted to get out of here. I wanted to go out and about, finding people that needed me, that needed God, the love of Jesus Christ. I wanted to help others more than how I helped myself. The truth is, all I have is from God. Then, what am I sacrificing for? Is it really even a sacrifice? 

A blessing is what it is. 

I sincerely pray that I live a life according to God's will, a life filled with love, a life for others. 

In Christ