“WHEN IS SACRIFICE REALLY SACRIFICE?”

“When Is Sacrifice Really Sacrifice?”

by Cecil Haffelfinger

We often toss about the word "sacrifice" as if it were a football. We sometimes use it to impress others…to make us look "more Christian." But is "our sacrifice" just rhetoric or does it really have substance? Not judging! Just asking. The "Rich Young Ruler" of Matthew 19:16-22 had deluded himself into thinking his life was a life of sacrifice. In reality, his was a life of covetousness.

Years ago in a country church the announcement was made that a special contribution would be taken to help the missionaries in a certain mission field. A little girl was deeply impressed. She told her dad she wanted to make a contribution. The father gladly offered her some money, but she said, "No, Daddy, I want to give something I will miss."

She had two possessions…a pet hen and a duck. That week when the peddler came down the country road the little girl was at the front gate with her pets. She asked, "What will you give me for my pets?" He took the fowls, weighed them, and replied, "They are worth 35 cents." The child pressed her pets to her bosom for the last time, and then gave them to the peddler. The next Sunday that 35 cents went into the collection plate for mission work.

Where there is a cross, there is sacrifice. The precious little girl's sacrifice isn't to be compared with the sacrifice of Jesus. But she made a sacrifice. She gave that which was most precious to her.

Beloved, that cross is still calling for sacrifice. And whatever our pet hen and duck might be, we must give it.

As a well-known song says, "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul…my life…my all."