The question spills into bigger picture things as well. Is it worth it to dedicate so much energy and time and life to learning a language? What if it is to be able to communicate with friends I haven't made yet and for the sake of a ministry that isn't certain? What if it means time away from my little boy who grows a little every day when I'm at school? Is it worth it to move with my family to the other side of the world for the sake of the gospel? What about the tremendous cost, the cultural learning curve, the stress, the language, the unsettledness, the loneliness? Is what we're going through worth it?
The God I believe in has to be pretty big to live up to these questions. What does he say is worth it for the kingdom of God? Selling all you have to buy a field that contains a pearl of great price. Leaving the 99 to search for the one. Becoming all things to all men in order to save some.
Perhaps the question should be reversed. Not "Is it worth it?" but "How could we possibly dare NOT risk everything for something so glorious?" The way we answer the question with our lives and the decisions we make reveals our hearts' true values. It's the fool who gains the whole world at the expense of her own soul.
May we not hold back in calculation but freely pour out all that we have at Jesus' feet. May we learn from the woman with her alabaster jar, the boy with his sack lunch, the widow with her two coins… holding nothing back, risking everything, gaining so much more. Trading temporal for eternal, seen for unseen, sowing tears for harvest rejoicing.
God, turn my "Is it worth it?" question upside down that I may fit in your upside-down kingdom.