Sacrifice
Rather listen to this blog? Listen to “Sacrifice”
Because this blog is being released on Easter Sunday, I wanted to write something appropriate for the occasion. However, I don’t want to recap the whole resurrection story, and it’s more than likely you’ve heard it every Easter for the last (insert your current age here) years anyway. On the off chance you haven’t, you can read up on it right here. Instead, I want to focus on the topic it represents: Sacrifice.
John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” While Jesus died on the cross to save everyone from their sins (yes, even those you would say don’t deserve this kind of forgiveness), I don’t think this verse is literally telling us to die for the sake of someone other than ourselves. Instead, I interpret this to mean giving up hours of your life to help those who need them more than you.
Anyone who knows me will tell you there is only one thing I loathe in this life: wasting time. Why? Because time is more valuable than anything else on this Earth. More money can always be made; time cannot be recouped.
There are 168 hours in a week. We are already forced to give up 40 of those to our employers to earn the wages that allow us to support ourselves (and depending on what you do, this number could be even higher). This might not be so bad if you truly enjoy what you do for a living. But that leaves a person with 128 hours left in their week. Ah, but wait! We need to subtract the time we spend with our eyes shut. It's suggested that the average person gets eight hours of sleep a day. That brings us down to 72 hours left to do whatever we please before the cycle repeats itself.
72 hours. If you think about it, that’s still a good amount of free time. Now all that remains is deciding how you will spend that more-precious-than-gold time. A decent portion of that should be devoted to spending some alone time with God. I try to make it at least 30 minutes a day, which is probably nowhere near enough but leaves us with 68.5 hours. Ideally, there are many things I’d like to use that time for: reading for pleasure, playing video games, hanging out with friends or my boyfriend, and maybe binging a TV show.
But when all is said and done, what do we gain from those “fun” activities? How does doing any of that make you a better person than you were the day before, or reflect the love of Christ to others?
Now, don’t misinterpret what I’m saying here: we ALL need time to ourselves to recharge – that’s why work-life balance is such a hot topic in our society. While we do already sacrifice a lot of time doing things we might not always have 100% of our hearts in, we need to start rethinking how we answer calls for help when they arise.
The next time that friend who calls you only when they want something from you hits you up…say yes. If you notice your elderly neighbor hasn’t taken their trash cans out to the street, don’t even ask them if they need help; just do it. When that person with three items comes up behind you and your heaping cart of products, invite them to cut you in line.
Jesus was tortured, mocked, hung on a cross, and bled for all people – even those who deny his existence entirely. The least you can do is take an hour out of those 68.5 you have left to show this kind of selfless love to another.
