Sacrifice part 1
I'm not sure how this Rant series is gonna go. But, as always, I believe God parts things on my heart for a reason. So I'm just gonna share it. Try to explore it over the next couple of days. Ok. I think about love a lot. Like... all the time. I'm kind of obsessed with it. And one of the things about love that I keep coming back to is found in John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." See, there are many forms of love, and many aspects of love, but the greatest expression of love is to sacrifice yourself. And I know that Jesus was speaking literally, because He literally went to the cross and laid His life down for us, but I also think He was speaking figuratively. This theme is picked up in quite a few places in the New Testament. Talking about bearing one another's burdens, and about esteeming others higher than yourself. Jesus spoke of taking the lesser seat rather than the greater seat. Humbling yourself. And the best definition I've ever heard of humbling yourself is, "not thinking less of yourself, just thinking of yourself less." I love that. Because even when you lay down your life for your friend, it's not because they're better than you, or you're better than them. It's simply because you love them. Let me quote one of my favorite movies to describe what I'm trying to say, "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." We don't love people because they've earned it. We love people because God loves us. Period. That love inside of us overflows out of us. That's the TRUE natural order of things. That's the Kingdom economy. We ARE loved, so we CAN love. Jesus laid His life down for us, we can lay our lives down for each other. It's that simple. Notice I didn't say it's that EASY. Because this is where it kind of gets complicated. Because while I absolutely believe that you can't run out of what you've got--it's ABUNDANT, after all--giving what you've got still costs something. Look at 1 Chronicles 21:23-24, "And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all. And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost." David insisted on paying the price. Now don't mistake me here, I'm not saying God wants something from you that will hurt you to give. Because God always supplies our need according to His riches and glory. It didn't hurt David at all to pay the full price because God had made David rich. I'm trying to say, sometimes we have this idea where, "It's my life and I'm going to live it for myself." But that's absolutely NOT how it works. We live our lives for others, and in that way we truly live. I think about happiness a lot too, and I'm convinced that the best way to BE happy is to make others happy. The best way to FEEL loved is to make others feel loved. So even when we pay the price... it's an investment. Because we always get it back even more than we gave! Not that that's our motivation, but it's a pretty sweet fringe benefit. More on this tomorrow.