If you are a parent and you and your mate decide no vacations to save for your children, is this a sacrifice in any way or just a joy?
All that we can actually give up for God or others is only that which stands in the way of our greatest freedom and deepest joy in Christ. In true sacrifice, there is nothing to endure, no lose or annoyance is experienced: after true sacrifice, we are less burdened than before. No pain.
Such a view is not commonly appreciated by the worldly for an obvious reason: if sacrifice is actually gain and without any suffering (in the paradoxical realm of the foolishness of God), where is the virtue or good?
It is the vastly accepted view by the worldly that the greater pain we endure for God or others, the greater the goodness and love. (A mother dying to protect her children is not a sacrifice but an act of love.) Pain seems to be what gives sacrifice its worth. If it hurts, therein is the proof we care. If it does not hurt, what is the value?
But in truth, our complete surrender to joy is our greatest sacrifice. As Janis sang, "It ain't nothin' if it ain't free, babe." Or in the Tao, "Perfect kindness acts without thinking of kindness." Or in Scripture, "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."
"No boast!"
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