It's All About the Sacrifice

People say that life is about a lot of different things. Family. Friends. Work. Whatever it is that keeps them ticking is, to them, what life is all about.

Christians, hopefully, tell you that it's about some deeper things. Many will probably tell you that it's about love. It is by your love that they will know. The words of Christ Himself. Love. You can't argue with that. We act because we love.

However, I want to throw something else into the singular pantheon of what the Christian life is about. Sacrifice.

I feel like it all boils down to sacrifice...to an extent (and I'll revist that statement later). Whatever we do seems to be a sacrifice of some sort. Whether it be of our time, our money, our emotions. It's all a sacrifice. Christ has called us to a life of sacrifice. What is that, though?

Patrick's Collegiate Spiritual Dictionary, 1st ed. defines it as, "giving up what one wants to bring attention to something else." Giving up your time. Giving up your money. Giving up your body. Giving up your emotions. All for the purpose of bringing a greater attention to Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

To me, this goes hand in hand with love (thus the "to an extent" statement). We are willing to sacrifice because we love Christ. We love Christ, which is, sometimes, a sacrifice. It seems that you can't have one without the other. I think too often, we forget about the sacrifice.

And to be honest, most of us probably sacrifice anyways. We just don't always recognize it as sacrifice because we have done it for so long, with love, that it no longer becomes a sacrifice.

Paul says that we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. That we are to offer our lives as living sacrifices. Holy and pleasing. This will be our extreme act of worship (Romans 12:1).

For His sake, sacrifice. Do that which is not always easy for you to do. Do that that you don't always have time, money or desire to do. God will provide. He'll take care of your needs. He'll give you the energy or the opportunity to make up time. He'll instill in you a love to do it.

Love. Sacrifice.