Sacrifice

As you might have noticed by now, Sherann and I haven’t posted anything in a while. We haven’t given up. We’ve just been … busy.

As for me, I’ve been consumed with thinking about sacrifice. What does it mean to sacrifice? How can I best honor God’s sacrifice for me? Knowing that God made a HUGE sacrifice on my behalf that I in no way deserve, what does that tell me about God?

Do you ever think about things like that? Do you ever stop to think about how much God loves you? How undeserving we all are of His love and His mercy, and yet He gives it to us willingly?

This year, World Vision offered a new series for Lent that dealt with sacrifice (www.worldvisionacts.org/lent2012). There were challenges and videos and art work and so much more than I want to take the time to list right now. For example, with a small group from my church we considered the definition of sacrifice. We thought about what in our lives could be sacrificed to bring us closer to God. What could we sacrifice to further the Kingdom of God.

Personally, I decided that sacrifice is tied to love. We don’t sacrifice for people or causes that we don’t love. I also realized that it’s generally connected to mercy and compassion. We sacrifice because we feel these things and want to make a difference for the people and/or the causes that we love. Also, sacrifice has to be voluntary, and it has to hurt. If someone makes you give, it’s not a sacrifice. If you give something that it doesn’t hurt you to lose, it isn’t sacrifice.

I’ve been struggling with this as I consider how much to sacrifice. All of me! Of course. But that’s not exactly what I mean. I definitely don’t need as much stuff as I have. And I’ve been working on get rid of stuff. But what about my clothes (of which I don’t have tons excess) or my books (which I use to draw closer to Him). It can be confusing. Especially when I consider how much more I have than so many others. And that some of my stuff holds me back because I fear losing it. The way I see it, that last one is a pretty good indication that I should get rid of things.

Do you ever struggle with materialism? Do you struggle with whether God would be pleased or disappointed with a purchase?

There are so many aspects to sacrifice: sacrifice of things, of time, of money, of me … All I know for sure is that I can never repay God for the sacrifice that He made for me. But I also know that I want to show Him how grateful I am every single day.