“We cannot belong to ourselves: we must belong to God or to our passions. We have only the one choice of the one yoke or the other. Which appears the most honorable?”
Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) in Spiritual Exercises as recounted in The Quotable Saint, ed. by R. E. Guiley (New York, 2002) 179.
Many of us spend ourselves pursuing our passions rather than pursuing God and this shows in our credit card statements. We often do this because we have the misconception that if we choose God, we lose enjoyment. Alternatively, God’s Word teaches us that when we sacrifice everything to take hold of Christ’s life [zoe], we will enjoy one hundredfold blessings mixed with suffering now (cf. Mark 10:29-30) and we will enter the unfathomable eternal joy of our Master (cf. Matt 25:21, 23; 1 Cor 2:9). Please choose wisely (cf. Mark 8:36).