Sacrifice

Sacrifice can be real or perceived. A real sacrifice has nobility as its marker and asks nothing in return. A perceived sacrifice is self appreciative and wants reward and praise for the giving. Sacrifice is the uncelebrated, unnoticed, unrecognized hero in this life and it speaks to an emotional maturity and intelligence that is frequently beyond the reach of mere humans of the un-evolved variety. I do not speak of my own evolved, emotionally mature intelligence Dear Reader, I speak of what I see, what I have witnessed with my own eyes, heard with my own ears. Words unspoken and actions never taken become things, just as their opposites become things. I know a guy who won’t take a raise but asks for one for his staff. I know a gal who coaches a woman whose son hurt her own. I know a man, who gives his home and has displaced himself. They do not mutter, complain, brag, ask for anything in return. Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” The ones I write of, they are the humble servants that God asks us to be to one another, thinking of our neighbours first, ourselves second. 1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Here is what sacrifice does not feel or act like: guilt, remorse, score keeping, emotional/psychological indebtedness, belittlement, accusation, attack or shaming. The you owe me sentiment is not in kinship with sacrifice, it is a wholly different animal that leaves claw marks on the flesh and deep gashes in the soul. Turmoil is the scar of selfishness dressed up like sacrifice. In its purity, sacrifice humbles the benefactor in gratitude, in thanks giving. Have you experienced this Dear One? Someone loving you so much that you came before them, you mattered more to them than their very life? In the discovery of this deep perhaps undeserving love for you, did you fall on your face in gratitude, in your unworthiness, knowing that you have never given the kind of love that you now receive? Oh human, we have so much to learn about love, do we not? In saying this, let us return to scripture…”Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…because God is love.” Let us take our lessons from Him and those who model His love. What would love say, what would love do…these questions can help us discover the outer reaches of sacrifice and differentiate it from selfishness. This, Dear One, is our evolutionary work on earth.