Sacrifices

Abraham was asked to give up his son, the boy of promise of whom an entire nation was supposed to come.  God gave up 'His son, His only son' that an entire world might have life.  Jesus said those who have given up houses, land, siblings, parents, or children for His sake would receive a hundredfold in recompense.  The entire Old Testament is centered around the Temple and its rituals of sacrifice.  Everywhere within scripture it is hinted at, demonstrated, or said to be the cost of walking in 'the Way.' We are told to count the cost before beginning the journey, to neither look back nor take our hand from the plow, not to look back with longing like Lot's wife, but to step boldly ahead, though we cannot see beyond the next turning of the road.  We understand the concept of positive sacrifice: being willing to give up what we have, even our very lives, but what of a negative sacrifice?  Can I give up what I don't have but what I deeply long for or desire?

Can you let go of the job you want, to go, like Abraham, to a strange land and do there some work you had never imagined?  Can you reconcile yourself to the fact that you may never marry or if you do, perhaps the children you've always wanted will never come?  Can you live without 'the house,' 'the car,' or the 'degree' or whatever it is you think you need but suddenly realize is incompatible with what God is asking you to do for Him?  Can you put your dreams on the altar ride beside your physical possessions?

It is a hard thing, perhaps an impossible thing, for we are dreamers and hopers, and to say that all we hope for must be laid on the altar opens us up to something like despair, for is it not the death of all hope?  But perhaps, like Abraham, we will receive back our sacrifice with joy, or perhaps not, but it is not despair, for it is not the death of all dreams, but rather the end of your dreams and the beginning of His.  We are made in His image, so we dream, but whereas our dreams are only dreams, His are Real!  We lay down our dross and take up His gold, what could be more wonderful than that?  But have we the courage to do it?  Can you be content to say, 'not my will but Thine be done?'