What does it mean to sacrifice or to make a sacrifice in life? I have often wondered about this in life. And I have in a way seen it as depriving myself of something and equated that with sacrifice in the past. It seems like most of the world around us sees sacrifice that way - when we cut into our own wallet, when we have to spend an extra amount of time on something or someone instead of our own hobbies or ourselves, or even when we have to give up on something we like or give away something we treasure. We seem to see all those as sacrifices in life. And it took me a while to see that this is not everything there is to sacrifice. Sacrifice in this sense seems to always be inward focused, essentially a me first mentality and what I am losing out on in life. However, as we read in the Bible, this is not the type of sacrifice that God requires or is pleased with. Rather, God is looking for an action of good will and sharing, good will to others and sharing with others what you have. In a sense, this is to bless others. And when you think deeper about it, blessing others generally does take a bit of the focus away from ourselves. So in a sense, this is sacrifice. But the focus here is not on us, rather it is on the undercurrent of the action, a drive for love. When you sacrifice out of love, is that really a sacrifice? When I scale back on my own hobbies and ability to take on more work and rather spend the time, energy and money on my kids, is that a sacrifice? It may be a sacrifice in the sense that I get to do less of what I like or I don't get to spend as much time doing what I love for work but ultimately it isn't sacrifice 'cause I get to spend time with my kids. The sacrifice is all worth it. So next time, when you feel as if you are sacrificing something in life, think about the blessings that you are imparting. To sacrifice is not about us but about blessing others.
Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices. Hebrews 13:16 HCSB http://bible.com/72/heb.13.16.HCSB
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