Love & Sacrifice

caseymaeburns
Dec 16, 2022
5 min read

Sacrifice:

noun : an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

John 15:12: My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you

It's quite interesting how God has been using words in my walk with him. How he seems to lay a word on my heart and then continues to confirm, reinforce and define what not only it means, but how I am supposed to apply it to my life and my direction. The most recent and current one on my heart, sacrifice. Our most recent service at church dived in pretty awesomely on this, confirming and opening up the very definition and acting out of the word.

Sacrifice isn't a word that sits on our minds like a bow on the top of a pretty package, or a cherry on the sundae. Instead we stay away from it, try to avoid the concept of it. Often times, when we think of other words, big words, like love, we are quick to talk about it. Quicker to attach to it all the positives. Love means warm and fuzzies, pleasure, intense affection for something or someone, right? ...all the many things that look pretty on paper and sound like a perfectly packaged gift ready for receiving and giving.

But, is that really... love?

I guess that question can be answered varying ways depending on the lens you are viewing your life and the world, your world, through.

I'm here to speak on viewing it through the lens of someone, trying my best, to follow Jesus

(And still new at reaaaally following him not just believing so give me grace please).

In a season that is supposed to be filled with so much "love", where are we measuring up? Where am I?

When you look at Jesus' life from birth to death, the most prominent messages and the most powerful actions are through LOVE and SACRIFICE, words, (or as I see them also as actions) that go hand in hand. I'm not sure sacrifice is the first word most people, myself included, have ever immediately wanted attached to love. That would be cause for self reflection, for accountability, and most importantly for action in our own lives and the lives of others.

Is love simply just a positive feeling I have when everything is going right? When someone is matching up perfectly with the idea of who I "expect' them to be? If that's the case, love doesn't seem that powerful then. What weight does it really hold, what action does it really take? How does it profoundly change someone then?

I'd argue, especially if you line up the very idea of love with the biblical answer and example of it, that love is in fact sacrifice.

It's choosing you, over me. It's saying, "you matter that much". It's acting out my life in a way that there is an unquestionable meaning and giving of self in life and therefore an unquestionable presence of love. Both the feeling and action of it.

I mean, look at the staple Corinthians bible verse we use for love, Im sure you've heard it read at a wedding you've attended:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

To me, so much of love from the verses above sounds and looks like sacrifice. Sacrificing my time for patience. Sacrificing my pride for humility not to boast or envy. Sacrificing my needs to not insist on having my way. What would a world look like if we all actually lived like this, if we all acted like this?

This time of year, I think it is really easy to get consumed with all that has become of this hallmark holiday. All the commitments, traditions, plans that are built around it and easily miss the whole concept of love in this context. At the end of the day, we are doing all these things because we are trying to feel loved in the moments, give love in our families, show love through gifts and the list goes on. But is that what is actually translating?...

For some of us, yes, or maybe. I'm not trying to speak for everyone here, but seeing where we are currently at from an emotional and relational standpoint - the most depressed we've ever been, the most unsure, self-conscious, overlooked, and lonely.. I can't help but think it's because we are living our lives trying to feel and give love like it's a gift easily picked up at the store or ordered off of amazon and delivered at your door. I mean that both figuratively and literally.

As I look at where love has been most powerful in life's moments, in relationships, in the personhood of Jesus, it's through love as sacrifice.

When have you felt most loved?

I bet when you think about it, a lot of it had something sacrificed underneath the surface of it. Maybe it was time, money, pride, plans given up, but I guarantee there was something laid down, just for you and that is powerful.

All this to say, that word is hitting heavy on my heart. I feel god calling me to live out my life not just saying "I love", but acting like I do. Starting first in my relationship with him, then with my husband, down to my kids, my family and friends. Knowing that if any of the above want to feel loved by me, it comes with me sacrificing and laying things down. That develops deep and profound relationships rooted in trust, understanding, and meaning. That's what I want most for my life and to give to those around me.

As I was thinking about writing on this topic, fate would have it this King & Country song started playing, and oh man could it not be more fitting. So I'll leave you with the lyrics and hope something in this resonates with you the way it has with me.

Love isn't a perfect packaged feeling. Love is a choice, and most importantly an action. Love is sacrifice.

What are you willing to lay down for someone you love and how would it profoundly grow your relationship?