The Great Trade

“Sacrifice is the willingness to see the greatness in something other than oneself.”
Loren Thornburg

Sacrifice is to surrender or give up for the sake of something else. In baseball this happens often with runners on where the batter will bunt, expecting to get out, so as to advance the runners and help his team towards scoring a run. However in life it is not always so easy or simple as in baseball. Giving up something often requires more than one at bat in a game but it requires much time and energy. Parents know this better than anyone in the time, money and energy they put into their kids. Sometimes it feels more like a sacrifice than others. But they do it for the sake of something else. They do it because they believe that what it costs is worth what will result. Again, unlike baseball the results don’t always come quick and you may not even see them. But true sacrifice is willing to surrender for the sake of something else, something greater even! This comes from knowing that which is greater. Without knowing we will not be willing and without the willingness there will be no sacrifice. Let us remember the greater that we would sacrifice ourselves.


“He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me…”
Psalm 50:24 NASB

“For the Egyptians are mere humans, not God! Their horses are puny flesh, not mighty spirits!”
Isaiah 31:3 NLT

Which is greater…our flesh or God’s spirit?! Seems like a no-brainer yet I find so often I live as if my flesh were greater. I trust in my flesh as truth rather than in the greatness of God. I am not willing to sacrifice that which I feel for that which I know is TRUTH. This is not to ignore the way in which I feel, but to truly acknowledge it as it is…my flesh. In the Psalms it speaks of the difference between sacrifice and true sacrifice. The practice of the people had been to sacrifice animals but God was calling them to something more, something true…the sacrifice of a heart that is thankful. He didn’t just want what they had He wanted who they were. He didn’t just want their acts of sacrifice but a heart that was willing to sacrifice as well; a heart that was willing to be thankful even when circumstances called for otherwise. The call of our God is the same today. He is asking us to sacrifice the ways that we want to feel for what we know is true…the goodness, greatness and faithfulness of our God. Isaiah speaks this same charge to the people who are tempted to rely on the Egyptians who are human, and their horses that are “puny flesh” rather than the mighty spirit of the Lord. Let us not fall victim to that same tendency! It will be a sacrifice at times to be thankful, but He is greater, He is good, He is faithful!! I can trade my flesh in its anger, sorrows, apathy, brokenness, emptiness, discouragement, despair for His spirit in all its joy!! Sounds like a good deal to me!