Skip to main content

You Get What You Sacrificed For

A good marriage takes sacrifice.

This is a key principle that I have recently put into words after 20+ years of marriage.

I was recently talking with Tyler, my former roommate from college, romanticizing about the spiritual experiences of the past and wishing for more activity of God in my life today. We talked on this line for about an hour, but something he said to me has stuck with me ever since. "You got what you died for."

Tyler shared with me about a church service he attended where Rev. Helm was speaking and the people had a visitation from God in a very remarkable way. If you know anything about moments of spiritual stirrings, or of being thrilled by the Spirit, or of having your own personal revival in a service, then you will understand what I am about to say. A moment like this broke out in that service and when it came and left, Tyler said that Rev. Helm made the statement, "You got what you died for."

I know I could bemoan and bewail the glory days of spiritual blessings of my past and continue to wonder if those days were the best days and keep nostalgically hoping that better days are ahead. And to be honest, that is where I am--well, I fluctuate between hope and despair because as I get older I just don't see it happening. I think that is called cynicism, and I know it is a robber in disguise.

After Tyler's brilliant words to me, I added to them some words I read in my Bible app about God's work in our world. In the OT, the author pointed out that God's activity in our lives came through sacrifice. As people would go to the Temple and make sacrifices, this is where they would meet God. What I took away from that devotional thought that day was how much it made sense: If it is true that God enters into my life in areas where I sacrifice, it made more sense of what Jesus said about denying self, dying to self, and giving up my life for His sake rather than trying to keep my life for me. Then the key came to me, "I get what I sacrifice for."

A good Christianity takes sacrifice. This is probably a bad way to say it, but there it is, down on (virtual) paper.

I have been applying this to my marriage, and it works. Marriage takes sacrifice. As I give up myself, die to what makes me single and open up to what being a couple has for me, I find life, peace, joy, and oneness. Sure, I don't always get what I want in the moment, or I'm "not allowed" to spend money for something I want, or I don't get to spend time with whatever agenda I had for myself. But that is what it seems like in the moment. I am finding that as I die to those things, I am rewarded with what I really want--oneness with my wife. Sure, I have betrayed that oneness many times, but the truth of the principle still remains: I get what I sacrifice for.

So, in my adventure to reclaim the glory days that are yet to come (sorry Bruce, they won't pass me by), I seek to apply the same principle to my relationship with Jesus. I have much to work through here because in all honesty, I have been bitter for a long time about this, mad inside and disappointed with God that things are not different for me somehow. Just yesterday, he spoke to me a heavy truth I did not like to hear, "If you never experience anything great again, is not knowing me enough?" It was more than I could bear to hear these words, because the answer should be yes. Should be...

External sacrifices always take an internal sacrifice first. And this is a pretty big one for me.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

"Just Thinking About Jesus"

I was wondering today about how I could start meaningful, spiritual conversations with others whom I know are not Christians but perhaps once were. I wondered how I would come across if I was deep in thought and he or she asked me, "What are you so deep in thought about?" and I replied, "I was just thinking about Jesus." I wouldn't want it to be annoying, just bridging. I was reading over an article adapted from The Evangelism Study Bible, that explored responding to people who have had a bad experience with Christianity. I found their five reminders worth repeating and good for keeping in the back of your mind, once practiced in your "holy imagination" (aka, spiritual reflection). 1. Don't be defensive. Remembering that it isn't so much that you do not agree, but HOW you disagree that will stick in their minds when they walk away. Take into yourself their comments as if you were the one who did them wrong and then reflect it back to the...
Read more

Revelation's Whore as Today's Culture

  https://thehustle.co/originals/why-you-almost-never-see-a-clock-at-the-mall The word “whore” may have different definitions to some, but I want to use it as a woman who markets herself for the sole purpose of robbing men of their life for her own gain--whatever her “gain” is: monetary, lust, or otherwise. She is the reverse-consumer and profiteer at the same time, a vampiress, a luxurious drunk, functioning alcoholic. Her appeal is a marketing scheme based on not just years of study, but an exquisite composition of research and development where she is both scientist and evidence, psychologist and client--in an endless cycle and sinister feedback loop of trial and error, hypothesis and investigation, feeding and consuming. All the while tricking you into believing you are the main character. But it isn’t about you. You have entered her Nirvana constructed for you to “remain inside” her. Once her legs are wrapped around you, she is sure to suck your life away. And as titillati...
Read more

What if Metallica Came to YOUR Church?

A reaction to John Van Sloten's, The Day Metallica Came To Church: Searching For The Everywhere God in Everything ,  2010. This book caused me to rethink some of my foundational theologies, specifically Creation and the Fall. If God created us in His image and declared His creation as ‘very good’, what consequences did the sin of Adam and Eve have upon us? How deep does it go? I have some very strong thinking patterns that hold everything as either good or bad, God’s or Satan’s, black or white. This either/or (dualistic?) outlook doesn’t leave room for the mysterious. But what if all of these things were meant to lead me to something more? What if I always stopped short because I was led to believe that when I came to a certain point I had arrived—mission complete--stop here and move on to another subject? And what if that wasn't true? I was challenged by the thought of how God speaks to us outside of the Bible. I have believed that God speaks to me through many things (...
Read more

Family Time Videos