Sacrifice

I've been thinking about that word for some reason over the last week.

What does it mean to sacrifice? What kind of sacrifice is pleasing to God? How much should we sacrifice?

In general the Lord has been prompting me to get more specific with how I define vague Christian terms like sacrifice, and "living for God", "doing his Will", "reaching people/kids"....what do I mean when I say those things?

I make these kind of statements all the time with out really thinking through the specifics of what it's going to cost or what I'm going to have to sacrifice to "reach a kid" for example.

The fact of the matter is that when I'm honest with myself I know that when I think of truly reaching a kid and having an impact on their life I want to see a kid who has gone from Death to Life. I want to see a kid's life transformed. I don't want to just see a kid who tolerates Jesus, I want to see a kid fall in love with him so much so that he can't help but tell his friends about him.

I would give up knowing 200 kids by name and taking a gazillion kids to camp in a second for the privilege of seeing this true transformation in even one kids life.

So what does this have to do with sacrifice?
Well I'm realizing that to have this sort of impact on a kids life I'm going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice and lay down my life.

This is what Jesus says in my all time favorite passage of scripture from John chapter 15 (the one my Mom read at my wedding that made me weep like a baby)
13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

To try and sum up what I am feeling right now it's that knowing 200 kids by name is still a great goal that I think we can accomplish together this year as well as getting 25 kids to camp , and getting Club going strong at Wilson.
However the goal that is going to cost us everything is going to be "laying down our lives", for one kid and seeing that kid walk from Death to Life a brand new creation!

One last thing and I'll shut up. Sacrifice is one of those kind of trigger words for feelings of guilt, like you hear about what you should be sacrificing and you even read this blog and feel bad about not doing more than you have so far and that is not what it means to sacrifice.

Guilt has no part of it!

And it's not doing something for the recognition of others in fact through out the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus says to do things in secret so as not to be doing them out of wrong motives ie. so people pat you on the back and take notice.

What it is however will cost us, it will inconvenience us, it may annoy us, it will be uncomfortable, it will take time we don't have, and it may even be painful But....I think this is what we all signed on for.

For the chance to see a life change and I'm speaking to myself right now , I know that for me to see that kind of change I can't just go up to the school casually hoping to run into a few kids or calling a kid up once every few weeks to go to the movies.
I need to be intentional the way Jesus was about including at least one kid in the every day parts of my life, my work , and my family. ....

I need to know their family, everything about them, and not in a stalky creepy kind of way but in a way that says I am investing in you and like the women at the well said of Jesus to her community , "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did".



I know I'm preachin it right now but I can't help it. I'm fired up at the thought of each of us having this sort of relationship with a kid.

If you actually read this whole thing I'm impressed and hope it made some sense.

I love you guys and hope and pray that we will all be a part of something huge and transformational in the life of a kid.