We are at a place where we can see that our time here is coming to an end in just a few days. I am flipping through my rolodex of thoughts, perceptions, and assumptions of this trip realizing just how often God will do exactly what He wants, regardless of what your desires may be. This trip has certainly been that sort of case.
If I think about how I can sum up this trip, I am reminded of the line, “It is not a sacrifice unless it hurts.” Sure, it was difficult to pack up and leave the comforts of my home country. That’s a given. It was tough saying goodbye to my husband whom I just married for 11 days. We celebrated our 4 month anniversary through a skype conversation. It was really hard finding the finances to fund the expense of this trip (going overseas is never cheap). All of those things are trivial though. They are momentary. None of them are things that I sacrificed that would leave me hungry, thirsty, abandoned, or even homeless. They wouldn’t take away the only things I love. All that I lost was a few days in the little box that I call my life. They were no sacrifice at all.
In Accra, sacrifice means going without food so that you can over a cold drink for a complete stranger. I have seen these people offer something that they know they would never be able to regain. They give not because they were going to get something in return, but because it is a part of their DNA.
Sacrifice is losing your job because you have professed to be a follower of Christ and your employer is Muslim.
It is being cut away from your family because you chose not to follow the path often taken and refused to pray to a false God.
It is losing the imperative support of your community because you accepted a faith that was not ingrained in your every move from birth.
I have not sacrificed. Matter of fact, I don’t know when I have given something to another person, that had left me hurting, going without, or lacking anything.
The believers of places like Nima, Mamobi, Kumasi, Abusaki, and many others, have seen and felt REAL sacrifice like that which the bible describes.
You know, we are to be LIVING sacrifices. If I gauge sacrifice on what I have done, I have not truly experienced it because it hasn’t hurt.
But I WANT to.
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