Would you give everything and anything you have to another?
Sacrifice. This is what God has been teaching me. It started with someone so important in my daily life offering everything of himself to all those in his life. Truly, one with a servant’s heart seeking only to love and not expect anything in return.
As it is a tendency for individuals to be selfish, I would watch his daily offerings and believe there was an ulterior motive for such kindness. What was he after?
2 Timothy 3:2-5 “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.”
What kind of love is this? For one to lay down his life for another and another and another?
The greatest thing about training camp was meeting 240 people who are laying their lives down for the sake of sharing God’s love throughout the world. When you put Jesus first in your life, He will wreck you! He begins to mold you to become more like Him….while this is lovely, it certainly isn’t easy! This “Jesus culture” that I experienced at training camp was beautiful. There was not one bit of selfish mentality. “What’s mine is yours” was a consistent theme I recognized.
While we racers were living the raw life and camping outdoors, we didn’t have access to luxuries such as coffee unless someone was wise enough to bring some! My teammate did just that. It was a cold brew as we didn’t have a way to heat water, but she willingly shared her limited supply of coffee with the 42 people on my squad. This may mean that she only got a few sips even after spending a lot of delicate time soaking the grounds and filtering the coffee …but this didn’t seem to bother her. She was grateful to share.
A few cold mornings we would break out into classes and if a trainer had a cup of coffee they would offer, “Does anyone want some?” Wide eyes opened everywhere, “YES!” What a treat! Warm coffee!??! Again, with there being so many takers in a large crowd, only a sip was available all around but no one complained. Sip, Smile, Pass. This wasn’t a limited experience to one person or one time. It was everyone. One morning a racer simply asked to hold a trainer’s cup of coffee to warm her hands. The trainer gladly handed her cup over and said, “You can drink some!” The trainer never actually drank her coffee. She allowed us to pass it around and drink from her cup and never asked for it back. Everyone lived with this “what’s mine is yours” mentality. Self-sacrificing for the building up of others.
It is one thing to love those who love us. It is easy to give to those who return the love…but that isn’t what Jesus did for us. Jesus gave ALL to us when we were undeserving.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Learning to humbly lay down your own selfish desires for the building up of others. This is what I am learning. This is what I challenge you with. Notice the person in front of you. What do they need? Are you able and willing to reach out and give it?
Romans 12:20-21 “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
