Sacrifice
Hello. May I share something I have been thinking about with you?
My friend and I were enjoying a quiet evening in her home located in the lovely hill country of Sierra Leone. “This is sure suffering for Jesus, right,” she said with a giggle. I laughed too as I looked around the brightly decorated room, noting the furniture and the Christmas tree complete with flashing lights. This was not the “missionary” setting I had pictured before I came to Sierra Leone. Like most people, I had always assumed that being a missionary meant living in a mud hut or some equally primitive structure.
I have pondered that conversation many times since that evening and asked, are we really suffering for Jesus? Really suffering? Some of my friends in the states might think so. After all, we do live without a telephone. And we do not have a washer and dryer. Our electricity comes from a generator – three hours a day if we are lucky. We receive mail only every ten days or so. And the roads of Sierra Leone make the back roads of America look like freeways by comparison. Maybe to some people that is “suffering,” but to us it has become a way of life.
But, looking at it from a different point of view, I am not so sure. Visit my home, for example. As you drive in, you see a beautiful new double-cab pickup truck. You are greeted by a watchman, and you notice several other workers on the compound. During a tour of the house you find A, the cook, busy in the kitchen and M washing cloths just outside the back door. You notice several beautifully crafted pieces of mahogany furniture. You wonder, is this really sacrificing for Jesus?
Not really. We loved the house we had spent months remodeling before we came to Sierra Leone. But leaving it was not a sacrifice. Nor was selling the car, the microwave, and the ten-speed bikes. At least these were not sacrifices compared to the real cost of becoming a missionary – leaving family and friends behind.
But even that cost is compensated by our new family here. Our fellow missionaries have become brothers and sisters, moms and dads, aunts and uncles (to the kids). It is not the same, but it helps to have this family around when you want to talk to your Mom but it is impossible, or on special family days.
After all, Christ made that sacrifice, too. He left His home, His father, and all that He had, to minister to people who needed to know Him. He sacrificed far more than home and family. He sacrificed His life for a world of people – because of love.
I wish that I could say that I always follow His example. I wish that I could tell you that I don’t miss shopping malls and McDonalds. At times I long for a strawberry malt or a roller coaster ride. But in those moments I think of Christ’s example. How I do want to be like Him – to care so much for others that the cravings of my earthly life seem unimportant.
Christ set the example of sacrifice. When I can introduce others to Him, the difference in lifestyle that we call “sacrifice” does not seem important anymore.
Nancy
How do you measure sacrifice in your life? What are you willing to give up so others will hear the truth?