photo credit: scazon
Ritual sacrifice. It happens everyday though we don’t refer to it in such terms. As a part of their every day lives men and women across the globe sacrifice their base human desires for something else.
I started thinking about this a couple of weeks ago as I prepared a lesson about Abraham and Isaac from the Old Testament of the Bible. I was struck by so many things in this story that I have heard dozens of times throughout my life. It surprised me how much of Christ and the atonement I saw in the story this time:
- A father willingly giving up his son
- A man carrying his own sacrificial “wood” to the place of his sacrifice
- God providing another to be sacrificed in place of the one meant to be offered
I was a bit ashamed as I was teaching the lesson. I struggle to sacrifice. I struggle to give of myself. I work ten to twelve hours a day most days and I try to sleep for eight (at the very least I lie in bed for eight) so I’m left with only four to six hours a day to accomplish more than I am right now. Many have different ideas about what more is. Right or wrong for me more is finding satisfaction in my career. I spend nearly half (if not more) of everyday doing this thing, being a “chef”. I want to get enjoyment from it.
But would it be better that I simply see what I do as a job and do more outside of the workplace for others?
In the Book of Mormon there is a section that asks some very pointed questions about how a person is living their lives.
- …have ye spiritually been born of God?
- Have ye received his image in your countenances? …can you look up, [at Him on the last day] having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?
- Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
- Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you?
- Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?
- I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth? Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you?
- Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?
- I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands?
- And now I ask of you, my brethren, how will any of you feel, if ye shall stand before the bar of God, having your garments stained with blood and all manner of filthiness? Behold, what will these things testify against you?
Though these questions are from a spiritual perspective they can provide a reference point for all to ask am I doing something more with my life. It begs the question is the more that I am doing with my life for something greater than myself. I should make us wonder will the legacy I leave behind be selfish or selfless.
I am asking myself these questions everyday. Are you? Leave a comment and share your sacrifices or the sacrifces of someone you know.
