Sacrifice
Sacrifice.
What truly does it mean to sacrifice?
To be despised, rejected, made to suffer, and familiar with pain.
Today, we focus more on what we can gain versus what we have to offer.
Have those before us sacrificed so much that there is no need to pay it forward?
A consumerism society where nothing is reserved, stored, planned, or prepared for the future.
Highlighted conversations around generational wealth yet spiritually and morally we ignore our generational bankruptcies.
Left empty and deprived, we live for ourselves. No community, no accountability, no collective, and disconnected.
We’ve lost the value of importance and have failed to fully comprehend the true meaning of sacrifice.
Sacrifice is noble when it’s attached to purpose. It is not an aimless ploy for recognition foolishly desiring applause for actions that neither benefit others directly nor generate real impact.
On the contrary, sacrifice is a moment. A concise decision where one realizes their purpose is not some mysterious journey. Yet it is a moment on a path altering decisions that align with their morals and values. This decision must be made to reinforce such beliefs.
There are many who we recognize in history for their unwavering sacrifices. Their legacies are sealed with recognition of monuments, memoirs, notable quotes, interviews, photographs and portraits, music and songs, and an abundance of continual stories praising their character and commitment to beliefs. Their perennial impact of greatness was provided by their sacrifice.
At the time of their sacrifice, they were not praised nor applauded but held in low esteem and despised by others. They went against popular opinions and socially accepted norms. They endured the pain of preservation, suffering throughout numerous situations, punished for their principles, stricken with doubtful moments requiring them to remain stable, and afflicted for the advancement of the many.
What do we have to give?
We become so consumed with the accumulation of self-centered thoughts to earn more, hoard more, spend more, to impress more all for gratifications that are momentary and empty.
People become envious of others’ compounded wealth and resources that isolate and not disconnect us from our societal community. These behaviors build moats of separation disconnecting us from our community in the forms of careers, accolades, material goods, and social status. We’ve become purely self-identified by self-benefiting motives.
Those in history who are immortalized were based, rooted, and interconnected within communities of people. Their sacrifices produced gifts of perspective revealing new knowledge and understandings fostering peace and a hopeful future.
Those who sacrifice pour out their lives becoming intercessors for the many.
The endurance to completion of their suffering produced the light of life.
What do you have to give?
What is your offering?
Our sacrifice is our selfless gift.
And what a mighty gift we all possess.
C.A. Taylor
April 22, 2022, 7:32 AM
