Cost

I think I need a bex and a lie down.  I have just been reading more of what John Paul the second said.  I really know nothing about him, because that is not my tradition, but what I am reading packs a punch for me.
What he said that resonates with me is that perhaps we sometimes can envy others because they are so easily free.  He went on to say that cost constitutes value.
I am not talking about the shops (and they are out there) that ask an exorbitant price for something that can be gotten from Target or K-Mart for way less.  They do it because they can.  Their customers will pay their price and they know it.  I am talking about what costs a lot because it costs a lot to produce.
Some where I was involved, we always put a price on things as we did not want to devalue its worth.  The cost always represented great value, but our thinking was that so often what is free is despised and does not engender commitment.  The old easy come easy go syndrome.  We felt that cost promoted commitment.  The cost always had to be value for money though.  We were not into charging for charging’s sake.
It is probably why people rightly get so upset when they have paid for something and do not get what they have paid for.  There few things worse than the feeling of having been ripped off.
At home I do not mind paying a cost if it represents value.  We had an expensive job that needed to be done.  We obtained three quotes and went with one of them.  We felt we got real value of money and have used that person again for another smaller job.  For another job we felt we paid too much.  We are happy with what was done but felt it could have been done for less.  At another place, someone accidently broke something of ours, and they replaced it.  The replacement is a problem child.  What was value for money, no longer was.
The point for me is, I tend to value more what costs.  This is where Christianity is such a dichotomy for me.  It is totally free, but cost me everything.  For me I always need to weigh up cost.  Some things we will always use no matter how many of them we get (coffee tea, sugar, butter etc.)  Other things we need, but only intermittently.  We get them if we need them (pots and pans, cups, drill etc).  Other things are one offs.  They may be expensive, but we see them as desirable.  Those sort of things I tend to assess on a cost/benefit basis.  If it is not worthwhile, we do not get it.  If it is, we do.   We got our shed, driveway, spa, car port on that basis.
It is not like the old joke “You’re money or your life.”  “My life.  I am saving my money for my old age.”  These are not life and death decisions.  Some can be and I just want to be ready to go.  Mostly however they are “Doh” things.  I get them wrong and go “Doh.”  To get it wrong may hurt pretty bad but it has never been the end of the world.
If it is win win, then I’m in.